The ongoing unrest poses the biggest challenge yet to Bouteflika and his inner circle which includes members of the military and intelligence services and businessmen
“It is the duty of Algerian society in all its segments to take to the streets,” the influential National Organisation of Mujahideen – veterans who fought alongside Bouteflika in the 1954-1962 war of independence against France – said late on Tuesday.Tens of thousands of people have rallied in cities around Algeria in the largest protests since the 2011 “Arab Spring”, calling on Bouteflika, 82, not to stand in an election scheduled for April 18. He submitted papers on Sunday.
“We are committed to providing safe conditions that ensure that Algerians fulfill their electoral duties,” the private Ennahar television statement quoted him as saying. Some officials from Bouteflika’s ruling FLN party have turned up at demonstrations. Several public figures have announced their resignations in a country where personnel changes normally take place behind closed doors.
Older Algerians still haunted by the civil war in the 1990s have tolerated crackdowns on dissent in exchange for stability. But young protesters have no real connection to the war of independence that gives Algeria’s elderly leaders their credentials and, desperate for jobs, have lost patience.Protesters have praised the military, which has stayed in barracks throughout the unrest.
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