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The protests for the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika filled the heart of Algiers. This Friday, after the troubled president has finally resigned, the protesters are meeting again to determine if the pace of reform can be maintained. By RYAD KRAMDI (AFP / File)
Algerians gathered Friday for the first mbad demonstrations since the resignation of the president in difficulty, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to determine whether the reform momentum can be maintained.
Activists have called social media "joyful demonstrations" to "peacefully bring down a dictatorial regime".
Opponents of the old regime have called for mbadive participation, targeting a triumvirate dubbed "3B" – Abdelakder Bensalah, Tayeb Belaiz and Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui.
Bouteflika's loyalist veterans were tasked with overseeing the political transition following the resignation of the veteran leader at the age of 82.
Bouteflika resigned Tuesday night, after several weeks of protests triggered by his candidacy for a fifth term. He had lost the support of his main supporters, including the head of the armed forces, Ahmed Gaid Salah.
Bensalah, the Speaker of the Upper House of Parliament for 16 years, will serve as interim president for three months until the organization of the elections.
Belaiz, minister for 16 years, was appointed by President Bouteflika to head the Constitutional Council to regulate elections.
Prior to his appointment as Prime Minister, Mr. Bedoui had served as Minister of the Interior – or, as the French newspaper El Watan said Thursday, "chief engineer of electoral fraud".
Opponents say all three are tarnished by their long years of service under Bouteflika and should follow his example and resign.
Algerian demonstrators march on a national flag showing the country still under the control of key allies of Abdelaziz Bouteflika after Tuesday's resignation of the troubled president. By Ryad KRAMDI (AFP) A few hours before the rally began, several hundred protesters had already gathered in front of the main post office in central Algiers, which was the epicenter of the protest movement.
Some shouted "we will not forgive!" In reference to an open letter that Bouteflika published after his resignation, apologizing to the Algerian people for his "mistakes".
Said Wafi, a bank clerk in the neighboring city of Boumerdes, arrived at 5 am in the hope of being the "first protester against the system".
"Leaving Bouteflika means nothing if his men continue to rule the country," said the 42-year-old.
Samir Ouzine, 19, student, accepted.
"Bouteflika was very sick, he did not really rule and nothing would change if he left alone and his men stay."
"Partial victory"
Lawyer Mustapha Bouchachi, one of the leading voices of the protest movement, called for the protests to continue "until they are all gone."
The Algerian army chief, General Ahmed Gaid Salah, was a loyal servant of Abdelaziz Bouteflika for 15 years before the resignation of the veteran president after several weeks of mbad protests. Event organizers are now demanding that he also stop smoking. By – (ALGERIA CANAL / AFP / File) "Our victory is partial," he said in a video posted online.
"Algerians will not accept that the symbols of the regime … direct the interim period and organize the next elections.
"These symbols of the regime can not be part of the solution and we are asking since February 22 that the whole system, its symbols and its customers, leave," he added.
"The resignation of the president does not mean that we have really won."
& # 39; Delicate phase & # 39;
The protesters call for the creation of new transitional institutions to implement reforms and hold free elections.
"Staying true to the constitution would probably give rise to a lot of protest, because the protesters might fear that the elections are not fair, competitive and free," said Isabelle Werenfels of the German Institute of International Affairs and Security.
Algerians of all ages and backgrounds took part in the seven weeks of mbad demonstrations that rocked the North African nation. By RYAD KRAMDI (AFP / File) "One option would be to appoint an independent and widely accepted leader for a transitional body," she said.
Hamza Meddeb, an independent badyst in Tunisia, said Algeria was entering a "very delicate phase, as the street and institutions may diverge".
Genevan political scientist Hasni Abidi said that "the Algerian street has become a new player" in the country's politics.
However, the intentions of the army were little known, he said.
Despite the abandonment of his boss Bouteflika who appointed him army chief in 2004, General Gaid Salah is still considered by the protesters as an essential defender of the "system".
The Liberte newspaper said that many Algerians could not forgive the army chief for supporting Bouteflika almost until the end.
"After the Bouteflika clan, it will be the turn of the head of the armed forces to face the street," he added.
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