Algeria’s army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah has called for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to be declared unfit to rule the country, following weeks of protests against the ailing head of state’s decision to seek a fifth term.
Although Bouteflika later reversed his decision, the 82-year-old postponed elections set for April and said he would remain in power until a new constitution was adopted, a move that effectively extended his current term.
In a televised address on Tuesday, Salah, the army chief, said he considered the people’s demands to be valid and that the presidency should be vacated.
“We must adopt a solution that helps us out of this crisis … a solution that respects and adheres to the constitution so that it’s a suitable one for all sides,” Salah said.
“This solution is stipulated in Article 102 of the constitution,” he said.
Under Article 102, the Constitutional Council could determine that the president is too ill to fully exercise his functions, and ask the parliament to declare him unfit. Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.
If two-thirds majority of the parliament’s lower and upper house ratify the council’s decision, the chairman of the upper house, Abdelkader Bensalah, would serve as caretaker president for at least 45 days.
El Bilad television said the Constitutional Council had convened a special session after Salah’s move.
The army chief is among the top power brokers in Algeria and his announcement could pave the way for Bouteflika’s removal.
قايد صالح يدعو لتفعيل المادة 102 من الدستور التي تقضي بشغور منصب رئيس الجمهورية pic.twitter.com/Hyv8c7adqV
— EL BILAD – البلاد (@El_Bilade) March 26, 2019
The move comes days after Hocine Khaldoun, spokesman for the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), said he will ask the party to withdraw its support for Bouteflika’s proposal to hold a national conference aimed at getting the country out of its current political deadlock.
‘Turning point’
Since February 22, hundreds of thousands of Algerians have taken part in nation-wide demonstrations protesting Bouteflika’s re-election bid.
Dalia Ghanem Yazbeck, a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, told Al Jazeera the military has been sending “mixed messages” from the beginning of the demonstrations.
“At first it was ‘we will not tolerate chaos’, and then ‘we are with the voice of the people’, and what Gaid Saleh said today was confirmation that the military has taken a strong stance in the political arena,” she said from Algiers, the country’s capital.
“What he said today confirms that the Algerian military has been, and will remain the devoted guardians of Algeria’s power,” Yazbeck said.
The army likely has a replacement in mind, she said, which it might make public in the next few days.
 |
| President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013 [File: Sidali Djarboub/AP] |
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, also described Salah’s announcement as a significant development, noting Bouteflika had appointed a new government and promised political reforms.
“It’s a major turning point for Algeria … he [Bouteflika] set the stage for a new national dialogue in Algeria to pave the way for democratization of the country,” Bishara said.
“So what is happening today, from the looks of it, is quite the opposite of what we were promised.”
Salah’s announcement signalled “a major escalation” and “basically means that the army has taken over,” added Bishara.
Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, thousands of people returned to the streets of Algiers calling on Bouteflika to resign, keeping up popular pressure.
“The system must go. There is no point for it in resisting,” said Belkacem Abidi, 25, one of about 6,000 protesters, mostly students, who gathered in downtown Algiers.
“I’m optimistic that our pressure will change things peacefully,” said architect Noureddine Bahi, 52.
