Algerian president announces departure plans after mass protests
Source: The Guardian
Algeria’s ailing president has promised to step down after the next election and enact reforms, as the nation’s elite moved to consolidate its power in the face of historic mass protests.
“I’ve heard the heartfelt cry of the protesters,” said Abdelaziz Bouteflika in a letter read out on national television on Sunday night. Addressing the uprising against his rule for the first time, he promised that, if re-elected in April, he would hold a national conference to implement political reforms and set a date for a second election where he would not be a candidate.
“(This) will find my successor in a manner incontrovertibly peaceful, free and transparent,” he said, adding that he would hold a national referendum to adopt “a new constitution which will mark the birth of a new republic and a new Algerian political system”.
An estimated 6,000 Algerians protested in Paris on Sunday, while thousands of students took to the streets in Algiers. Observers waited to see if Bouteflika would return from medical treatment in Geneva to submit his candidacy before Sunday’s midnight deadline.
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Ruth Michaelson
Sun 3 Mar 2019 19.30 GMT First published on Sun 3 Mar 2019 17.39 GMT
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/03/algerian-president-sacks-campaign-manager-as-protests-continue
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