Algeria lawyers to protest president’s bid for 5th term

By Abdul Razzaq bin Abdullah

ALGIERS (AA) - Members of Algeria’s bar association plan to boycott all judicial proceedings next week to protest President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's planned bid for a fifth term in office.

According to a bar association statement released Wednesday, lawyers plan to maintain their boycott for four consecutive days “as a means of supporting the popular movement against Bouteflika's fifth-term ambitions”.

“On Monday, we also plan to stage demonstrations outside the nation’s courts to demand that the constitution be respected,” the statement read.

Last month, Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front nominated the 82-year-old Bouteflika -- who has ruled Algeria since 1999 -- to run for a fifth presidential term.

Since then, Algeria has seen several anti-Bouteflika demonstrations in different parts of the country, including capital Algiers.