Algerian protesters reject military's gambit to maintain power
Algeria's army chief has called on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to be declared unfit, paving the way for a caretaker president. But protesters argue the military must hand power to the people.
After weeks of mounting protests in Algeria, with hundreds of thousands gathering to call upon ailing 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to relinquish office, there are further signs of the president’s inner circle deserting him.
The army’s chief of staff, Gen. Ahmed Gaed Salah — backed by a key part of the country’s ruling coalition, the National Rally for Democracy, and the General Union of Algerian Workers — has echoed protesters’ demands for the president to step aside, proposing a managed process that would see power ceded to a senior member of the country’s political establishment.
But protesters buoyed by the apparent groundswell of support for their cause have dismissed the compromise measure from the country’s ruling elite as little more than a tactical olive branch intended to maintain power within the close political circle that has formed around the infirm president.
Speaking on television, Salah told viewers, “We must find a way out of this crisis immediately, within the constitutional framework." For the army, at least, that constitutional framework appears to be invoking Article 102 of the Algerian Constitution, declaring Bouteflika unfit for office and for power to be transferred to a caretaker power.
