Crowds in Algerian Cities Demand President's Quit

• 03.16.2019, 17:15
•  World

Wearing Algerian flags on their backs and chanting “Bouteflika, Get Out,” diverse groups thronged leafy boulevards in Algiers and converged on three public plazas that have become focal points for a month-long public uprising against the country’s shadowy leadership, Iran Daily reported.

Algerians have barely seen Bouteflika in public since he suffered a 2013 stroke, and many are angry at a power structure widely seen as corrupt. Millions struggle to make ends meet despite the country’s gas wealth.

The protesters want to send a mass message that they are rejecting Bouteflika’s attempt this week to defuse Algeria’s political crisis.

Bouteflika ceded to protesters’ demands that he abandon plans for a fifth term, and promised reforms addressing concerns of frustrated, struggling youth. But he also canceled the April 18 presidential election, a move that critics fear could allow him to cling to power.

So far the protest movement has been calm, with just a few incidents of violence on the sidelines. But the specter of past violence haunts many Algerians, notably a civil war in the 1990s between insurgents and security forces that left some 200,000 dead.

Bouteflika is credited with helping reconcile the nation after that, but is accused of becoming increasingly out of touch as his presidency dragged on.