By Abdul Razak bin Abdullah
ALGIERS (AA) – Abdelaziz Belaid, an Algerian opposition leader and presidential candidate, has threatened to withdraw from elections slated for April 18 if President Abdelaziz Bouteflika insists on vying for a fifth term in office.
Speaking to reporters in Algiers, Belaid, leader of Algeria’s opposition Future Front Party, vowed to withdraw from next month’s poll unless Bouteflika renounces his candidacy.
The 81-year-old Bouteflika’s planned bid for a fifth presidential term, he said, “has made a laughing stock of the country”.
“The Algerian people have already taken to the streets to reject a fifth term [for Boutelflika],” Belaid said.
Several other opposition figures have already withdrawn from the upcoming election to protest Bouteflika’s bid to secure a fifth term.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.
Last month, Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front nominated Bouteflika -- who has ruled Algeria since 1999 -- to run for a fifth term in office.
Opposition figures have repeatedly urged the aging president, who in 2013 was treated for a blood clot in the brain, to refrain from contesting the election.