Bouteflika sets presidential election for April 17

File picture dated May 17, 2007 shows Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika casting his ballot in parliamentary elections in Algiers.

AFP/Algiers

Algeria’s ageing leader Abdulaziz Bouteflika yesterday called a presidential election for April 17, a day after returning from medical treatment in France, without indicating if he himself would stand.

With Bouteflika’s health woes making his own participation increasingly unlikely, the leadership contest is likely to be one of the most important in years in the energy-rich North African country, which is a key player in the fight against Islamist militants plaguing the region.

“Bouteflika today proceeded with the signing of the presidential decree convening the electoral body for Thursday, April 17, 2014, for the election of the presidency of the republic,” a statement from his office said.

The 76-year-old president has ruled the country continuously since 1999, but has rarely been seen in public since suffering a mini-stroke that confined him to a Paris hospital for three months last year.

He flew back from France on Thursday after an unexpected three-day medical visit which national media described as a “routine check-up”.

Bouteflika has never named a favoured successor and has not ruled out the possibility of accepting his nomination by the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) in November to stand for a fourth term despite his failing health.

The uncertainty about his intentions has created a vacuum at the heart of Algerian politics.

Soufiane Djilali, who heads the New Generation opposition party and plans to run for the presidency, accused Bouteflika of deliberately creating the uncertainty—by travelling to France this week and convening the electoral body at the last minute—because he wants “to cling to power at any price”. 

But for Algerian political expert Rachid Tlemcani, a fourth Bouteflika term is out of the question.

“The deciders are looking for a replacement,” he said, alluding to the secretive military elite, often referred to as the “pouvoir” and seen as the real power in a country where every post-independence leader has been chosen by the army.

“There is external pressure on Algeria to remain stable... I think Bouteflika will announce his decision (not to run) the day before the legal deadline,” he added.

Presidential hopefuls have 45 days to present their candidacies to the constitutional council, which rules on whether they are valid within 10 days.

The electoral law requires each candidate to gather at least 60,000 signatures from supporters across no fewer than 25 provinces, with a minimum of 1,500 signatures from each.

North Africa expert Geoff Porter argued that a vetted new president was the most likely scenario.

“Only fools make confident predictions about Algeria, but it does nonetheless look increasingly unlikely that Bouteflika will be able remain in office much longer,” he said.

“Meanwhile, his prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, has continued the thinly veiled campaigning that he started last September.”

Speaking on Thursday in Bouira, on one of his many working visits around the country, Sellal praised Bouteflika’s policy of national reconciliation following the 1990s civil war, and stressed the government’s determination to confront the country’s social problems.