Algeria protests: Concessions by president fail to stop demonstrations as cracks appear in regime

Member of Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s own party says he is ‘history’

Algerians flooded the streets on Friday for the first major protest against the the ailing president since he announced he would not seek a sixth tern.

On Monday, wheelchair-bound Abdelaziz Bouteflika cancelled elections originally slated for 18 April, and vowed to hand power to a successor once a new constitution was written – a process that extends his mandate to rule into 2020.

But the gambit failed as hundreds of thousands of protesters came out in their droves in Algiers, in what some news outlets called the largest protests against his rule so far.

Many say they have been betrayed before by Mr Bouteflika’s unmet promises to hand power over.

They were also encouraged to demand more change following apparent defections within his ruling National Liberation Front, or FLN – the organisation that fought France for the country’s 1962 independence.

“The authentic FLN supports the protest movement, and considers the popular movement to be a true opportunity,” Hocine Kheldoun, a former member of the FLN leadership, said on the privately owned Ennahar network on Thursday.

“The protest movement is also moral support that liberated many members of the FLN leadership who have been marginalised and excluded and stayed at home suffering in silence, as they followed what has been going on for years.”

Algeria’s elite is comprised of rival cliques of security officials and business leaders divvying up the country’s hydrocarbon wealth with little accountability.

Many consider Mr Bouteflika, who hasn’t delivered a public speech since a 2013 stroke, a mere front man for that collection of shadowy special interests.

Mr Kheldoun described the FLN as a “facade for the regime”.

Mr Bouteflika’s newly appointed prime minister, Noureddine Bedoui, welcomed the opposition to join with the government to shape political change. But the protest movement is mostly leaderless, though Algeria has well-organised opposition political parties.

The Friday protests suggest Mr Bouteflika’s dramatic announcements have failed to slow the momentum of the protest movement, led by young people but drawing Algerians of all walks of life, including families with their children.

Even police officers appeared to join the protests in Algiers, holding up a sign against Mr Bouteflika, largely seen as a symbol of the country’s stagnancy.

“Those who think we are tired are wrong,” said Madjid Benzida, 37, a physician, was quoted as saying by Reuters. “Our protests will not stop.”