Large crowds of Algerians yesterday took to the streets of the capital, where dozens were detained ahead of the latest protest two months after leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned.
Demonstrators filled avenues in central Algiers chanting slogans against a push to hold presidential elections in July and rejecting calls by the armed forces chief for dialogue.
“No elections with this gang in power,” the crowd shouted.
Protesters are looking to keep up the pressure on the North African state’s ruling elite with weekly rallies despite the end of Bouteflika’s two-decade rule.
Police had earlier rounded up some 50 people, mainly young men, in the heart of Algiers ahead of the planned protest.
Those detained had their IDs and mobile phones confiscated and were loaded into vans, an AFP journalist reported. Demonstrators taking to the streets are demanding the resignation of all those tainted by ties to the former regime. Local journalists reported that people were out in force in the country’s other biggest cities of Oran, Constantine and Annaba. Armed forces chief Ahmed Gaid Salah has become the main powerbroker after he turned on his boss Bouteflika and helped ease him from office in the face of the mass protests.
He is pushing for elections on July 4 but demonstrators insist there must be a wholesale change of top officials before a new vote can be held.
Only two little-known figures have submitted their candidacies on time for the disputed poll, raising doubts about plans to stage it.
A man gestures during an anti-government protest in Algiers, yesterday.
