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Algeria Sets Presidential Election for April 18

Algeria Sets Presidential Election for April 18
folder_openAlgeria access_time5 years ago
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Local Editor

Algeria is set to hold the presidential election on April 18, the North African country's presidency announced.

It is unclear whether Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria's frail 81-year-old president who has been in power since 1999, will stand for a fifth consecutive term.

Djamel Ould Abbes, the former chief of the ruling National Liberation Front [FLN], was sacked in November, a month after he announced that Bouteflika would be the party's candidate in the presidential poll.

"Bouteflika... is the candidate of the FLN for the presidential election," Ould Abbes was quoted as saying following a meeting with legislators from the party last year.

"His candidacy has been demanded by all the FLN cadres and activists across the country," he said.

Bouteflika, who has been confined to a wheelchair since suffering a stroke in 2013, last addressed the nation more than six years ago.

If he wins, he will be 87 by the time Algeria's following elections are held.

More than 40 percent of Algeria's 41 million population is under 25 and many of them know no leader other than Bouteflika.

Many Algerians have chosen peace and stability over political reform, pointing at the devastation in neighboring Libya as a result of the country's revolution and political turmoil.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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