Algerians protest president’s planned bid for 5th term

By Hassan Jebril

ALGIERS (AA) – Demonstrations have resumed in several Algerian cities against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid to secure a fifth term in office in elections slated for April 18.

Thousands of students from the University of Algiers marched through the streets of the capital on Tuesday chanting anti-Bouteflika slogans.

Marchers were reportedly joined by thousands of others at the city’s Maurice Audin Square.

Tuesday’s demonstrations were accompanied by heavy security across the capital, with the authorities temporarily closing several underground stations.

Similar protests were reported in other Algerian cities on Tuesday, including Tiaret, Tebessa, Jijel, Setif and Sekikda.

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 term in office.

Opposition figures have repeatedly urged the wheelchair-bound leader, who in 2013 was treated for a blood clot in the brain, to refrain from contesting the upcoming poll.

Several opposition figures have already withdrawn from the election to protest Bouteflika’s planned bid to secure a fifth term.

These include Louisa Hanoune, secretary-general of Algeria’s Labor Party; Ali Benflis, a former prime minister; and Abderrazak Makri, head of Algeria’s Movement for Society for Peace.