After the general strike and massive protests throughout Algeria which saw the support of Algerians from all walks of life – from public-sector unions to urban shopkeepers to hundreds of lawyers and judges – calling on ailing 82 years old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to withdraw his bid to run for a fifth term for the office of the president of country, what can be referred to as a landmark victory for the protesters has been recorded as the ailing 82 years old president on his return from his two weeks medical treatment in Switzerland had postponed the elections scheduled for April 18, 2019 and said he would not seek a fifth term in office.
In a similar announcement, his prime minister has also resigned from office and the regime is currently working on setting up a technocratic government to work out a sort of political transition in the country. As a result of this announcement, the city of Algiers has been thrown into a celebration mode of all kinds with residents honking horns and jubilating in the streets.
Before now, protests are general rare in the country as any form of protest is handled by a heavy hand by the powerful security and intelligent forces of the Algerian government. So at the initial stages of this protest so many people believed that the protesters were in for a show down with security forces which could turn bloody. As expected the security forces moved into the street when the protests started by shooting teargas to disperse the protesters but fall short of expectations from different angles as they did not see the usual heavy-handedness of the security forces.
In his statement to the Algerian people, Bouteflika stated that, “There will be no fifth term,” and this statement to many of the Algerians is possibly signaled the end of his two-decade reign. He added that, “There was never any question of it for me. Given my state of health and age, my last duty towards the Algerian people was always contributing to the foundation of a new Republic.”
This recent statement is different from his position a week ago when he stated that through intermediaries that he would step down only after being reelected once more. But that statement which many believed that it was an attempt to assuage protesters’ demands was insufficient as the protesters refused to accepted that and call for him to withdraw his bid to run for the top job in the country immediately. Many of the protesters believe that he is no longer fit to govern the country since a stroke in 2013 left him paralysed and could only move from one place to another by using a wheelchair. But despite his poor health condition he had refused to relinquish its domineering control over the state.
According to many Algerians the regime’s ruling political and military elites, and the cabal of wealthy oligarchs beholden to them, as “le pouvoir,” or the powers-that-be. The regime has remained largely intact since the heady days of independence from France. Its greatest test was an Islamist-led insurrection in the 1990s that was eventually quashed in a bloody civil war that saw perhaps as many as 200,000 Algerians killed. But a generation later, the regime’s inability to provide jobs for its youth — some two-thirds of the country’s population is under 30 — and its perceived cronyism and mismanagement lit a fire under a vast spectrum of Algerians who want meaningful reform.
After announcement of Bouteflika withdrawal from running for the fifth time and the postponement of the general election, unconfirmed rumours flying around the country had suggested that a former foreign minister and respected international diplomat, Lakhdar Brahimi is likely to head a caretaker government that could pave the way for fresh elections in the country.
