ABDELAZIZ BOUTEFLIKA- ALGERIAN PRESIDENT
ALGIERS, March 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An influential Algerian party backed the army’s call for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to go in a managed exit plan that was quickly rejected by protesters demanding the overthrow of the entire political elite.
The statement from the National Rally for Democracy (RND), a member of the ruling coalition, came after the military – Algeria’s traditional kingmakers – said Bouteflika should be declared unfit for office.
The leader of the RND party, Ahmed Ouyahia, urged Bouteflika to resign under Article 102, which also covers presidential resignations.
Based on the constitution’s Article 102, the chairman of parliament’s upper house, Abdelkader Bensalah, would serve as caretaker president for at least 45 days after Bouteflika’s departure.
The announcements by two pillars of the establishment were a clear signal that the 82-year-old president – who has rarely appeared in public since suffering a stroke in 2013 – has little to no chance of staying in power in the North African country, an oil and gas producer.
But the leaders of five weeks of mass protests fueled by anger over alleged corruption, nepotism and economic mismanagement said the plan still did not go far enough, risking a confrontation with the military.
“Protests will continue… Algerians’ demands include a change of the political system,” Mustapha Bouchachi, a lawyer and activist, said.
“The implementation of Article 102 (the part of the constitution that covers declaring a president unfit for office) means that the symbols of the system will oversee the transition period and organize presidential elections,” he said.
Protesters have repeatedly said they would reject any orchestrated succession in politics and want a transition which will lead to a government by consensus.
The army’s powerful chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah, told officers in a speech broadcast on Tuesday that the solution to the crisis would be the departure of the president on health grounds.
Salah called on the country’s constitutional council to rule whether the president was fit for office. Such a ruling would have to be ratified by members of parliament’s lower and upper house by a two-thirds majority.
Facing the biggest challenge to his rule, Bouteflika reversed a plan to seek a fifth term, postponed elections and promised to introduce greater freedoms. — NNN-AGENCIES
