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Algeria Crisis: Interim Rulers under Pressure for More Change

Algeria Crisis: Interim Rulers under Pressure for More Change
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By Staff, Agencies

In the course of the political crisis engulfing Algeria, the country’s caretaker government is facing the prospect of persistent popular demands for the removal of a sclerotic ruling elite and wholesale reforms after ailing 82-year-old President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika quit in the face of mass protests.

“We want a president who understands what we want,” 25-year-old Bouzid Abdoun, an engineer at state-owned energy concern Sonelgaz, told Reuters Wednesday. “We want to live here, not to migrate to Europe.”

Bouteflika ended 20 years in power Tuesday after a final nudge by the military following six weeks of protests calling for democratic reforms after almost 60 years of monolithic rule by veterans of the 1954-62 independence war against France.

That leaves Algeria extraordinarily in the hands of a caretaker government until elections in three months and with no successor in sight.

However, protesters made quickly clear that they would accept no new president from “le pouvoir,” the popular nickname for the entrenched establishment of elderly veterans, business tycoons and National Liberation Front (FLN) party functionaries.

“What is important to us is that we do not accept the [caretaker] government,” Mustapha Bouchachi, a lawyer and protest leader, told Reuters just before Bouteflika stepped down. “Peaceful protests will continue.”

Ali Benflis, a former head of the ruling FLN party, said other leading figures should also quit, naming Abdel-Kader Bensalah, chairman of the upper house who is standing in for Bouteflika for 90 days, interim Premier Noureddine Bedoui and constitutional council head Tayeb Belai.

“The Algerian people have just closed one of the darkest chapters in the history of our country,” he said in a statement, calling the protest a “peaceful popular revolution.” Protesters have brushed aside especially Bedoui, whom Bouteflika appointed Sunday as his grip on power was fading. Bedoui is seen by many in the street as a stalwart of the ruling circles - as interior minister he oversaw elections that the opposition said were not free or fair.

Algeria’s streets were quiet Wednesday but the next test for the interim rulers looms Friday, the day of the weekly mass marches since Feb. 22.

Bouteflika’s exit is seen only as a first gesture for young Algerians demanding jobs in a country where one in every four under the age of 30 is unemployed in a highly statist, undiversified economy dependent on oil and gas exports.

In a letter published by state media, Bouteflika bade farewell to the nation, thanking Algerians several times for having him rule the country for 20 years. He also offered his apologies to the people for “every shortcoming.”

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