{"id":11793,"date":"2019-03-04T07:35:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T23:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=11793"},"modified":"2019-03-04T07:37:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-03T23:37:07","slug":"amid-protests-algerias-bouteflika-vows-to-run-for-last-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=11793","title":{"rendered":"Amid protests, Algeria’s Bouteflika vows to run for last time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Algerians chant slogans under a national flag during a protest rally on Friday. Photo courtesy Twitter<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

ALGIERS, March 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has changed his campaign manager for an April election in which he is expected to seek a fifth term, state news agency\u00a0APS\u00a0said on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

News of Abdelghani Zaalane\u2019s appointment came a day after tens of thousands of Algerians protested against a further presidential term for the 82-year-old, who is in Switzerland for medical checks. Zaalane is a minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APS did give any reason for Bouteflika\u2019s decision to replace his previous campaign manager Abdelmalek Sellal, who had said on Tuesday that the president would submit official election papers on Sunday, the deadline for candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opponents say Bouteflika, who suffered a stroke in 2013 and has been seen in public only a few times since, is no longer fit to lead the North African country, a major oil and gas producer.<\/p>
The 82-year-old leader suffered a stroke in 2013 and has rarely been seen in public since, but nonetheless plans to run for a fifth term, his campaign manager Abdelghani Zaalane said Sunday on national television. <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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But in a sign of weakness to mount a challenge against the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), an umbrella group of opposition parties again called on Bouteflika to quit but did not nominate a single candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday saw the largest turnout to date in Algeria\u2019s biggest anti-government demonstrations since the Arab Spring eight years ago. Bouteflika has not directly addressed the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most of the country\u2019s elite made up of FLN leaders, military officers and business tycoons, Bouteflika is a veteran of Algeria\u2019s 1954-1962 independence war against France. He has been in power since 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authorities said last week he would travel to Geneva for unspecified \u201croutine\u201d medical checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Algerian media did not report on his trip but Swiss public television said late on Saturday that Bouteflika remained at Geneva University Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform said one citizen died and 183 others were injured in the popular protests Friday in various parts of the country, the ministry said in a statement.<\/em> Photo courtesy aps.dz<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A total of 183 people were injured during Friday\u2019s protests across Algeria and one person died of a heart attack, APS said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capital Algiers was quiet on Saturday with shops open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large-scale demonstrations \u2014 rarely seen in Algeria with its ubiquitous security services \u2014 against Bouteflika\u2019s re-election move began a week ago and have grown in size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Algerians avoided public political activity for years, fearing trouble from the security services or disillusioned with the war veterans who have run the country since independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a decade-long Islamist insurgency that Bouteflika stamped out early in his rule, Algerians have often tolerated a political system with little space for dissent as a price to pay for peace and stability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALGIERS, March 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has changed his campaign manager for an April election in which he is expected to seek a fifth term, state news agency\u00a0APS\u00a0said on Saturday. News of Abdelghani Zaalane\u2019s appointment came a day after tens of thousands of Algerians protested against a further presidential term for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":11795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,291],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11793"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}