Frustration Drives Algeria’s «Shockwave» Protests

By Staff, Agencies

Mounting frustration at their ailing president's bid for a fifth term has brought protestors to the streets in Algeria, where Abdelaziz Bouteflika is the government’s candidate for April elections.  

Bouteflika, in power for 20 years, has rarely been seen in public since a 2013 stroke. He is currently in Switzerland for what his office calls "routine medical checks".

Thousands have taken to the streets to protest against the 81-year-old's candidacy in recent days.

The authorities were probably aware that a bid for a fifth term would be unpopular. 

But it was difficult to foresee how the nearly unprecedented protests would escalate so quickly.

Complacency may have set in because Bouteflika's successful 2014 bid was accepted "relatively easily", according to Louisa Dris-Ait Hamadouche, who teaches political science at the University of Algiers 3.

The presidential camp has until midnight on Sunday (2300 GMT) to confirm Bouteflika's candidacy -- and campaign under pressure from the protests, without the active participation of the president.

Alternatively, it could find another candidate.

But Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term "seems to have been born out of the system's incapacity to agree an alternative candidate" over the last five years, according to one diplomat.

Unanimously agreeing on a replacement in the next few days would therefore be challenging.