Algerian President Bouteflika will not seek his fifth term, delay elections | New



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Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said he would not run for a fifth term and announced the postponement of presidential elections in the country amid mbad protests against his bid for reelection.

In a message sent Monday by the official APS news agency, Mr 82 also said the elections would follow a national conference on political and constitutional reform scheduled for late 2019.

"There will be no presidential elections on April 18," he said about the expected date of the vote, adding that he was responding to an "urgent request for which you have been many. "

The troubled leader, who is confined to a wheelchair since his 2013 stroke, said that a government reshuffle would also take place soon.

According to the APS, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia also reportedly resigned. Minister of Interior Noureddine Bedoui has been appointed to replace him.

This dramatic development follows weeks of mbad protests against Bouteflika's plan to extend its 20-year rule.

Amel Boubekeur, a Research Fellow at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, based in Paris told Al Jazeera that the resignation of the president was only the beginning.

"All eyes are on the army.All the army will let new events take place next Friday? … With Bouteflika apart, the army will have his word to say on the type of position that she will accept. "

"Now it seems that the Bouteflika regime is over but [the question is] will we recover the state civilly without … any pressure on all those people who have been using it for so long?

"If we look at the Tunisian transition for example, we found that we could not avoid the return of the old elite, but it did it through new institutions, it was more or less easy to control this. result."

More soon …

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