{"id":38825,"date":"2019-04-05T03:23:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T03:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38825"},"modified":"2019-04-05T03:23:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T03:23:45","slug":"bouteflika-seeks-forgiveness-from-algerians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38825","title":{"rendered":"Bouteflika seeks forgiveness from Algerians"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nALGIERS: A day after Algeria\u2019s Constitutional Council formalized Abdelaziz Bouteflika\u2019s departure Wednesday from the office he held for two decades, the ex-president himself asked the Algerians people for forgiveness. He urged citizens in a farewell letter \u201cto stay united, and never divide yourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nA discreet, 77-year-old Bouteflika ally \u2014 the president of the upper house of the Algerian Parliament, Abdelkader Bensalah \u2014 is expected to take over as interim leader while Algeria plans elections. But that might further anger the protesters who drove Bouteflika from power, and who want to overhaul a political system seen as secretive, elitist and corrupt.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur session today is related to establishing the vacancy of the post of president of the republic, following the resignation of Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika yesterday,\u201d said Constitutional Council President Tayeb Belaiz at Wednesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

\nThe 12-member body then formally notified Parliament that Algeria no longer has a president. Both chambers of the national legislature are expected to meet to name the president of the upper house as interim leader for 90 days while elections are organized.<\/p>\n

\nIn the public farewell letter released Wednesday by state news agency APS, Bouteflika acknowledged that some of his actions as president were less than successful, writing: \u201cI ask your forgiveness for any failing toward you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBut he also said, \u201cI am leaving the political scene without sadness or fear, for the future of our country.\u201d He said he hoped Algeria\u2019s new leaders take the nation to \u201chorizons of progress and prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nWomen and young people, who led the protest movement that pressured him out of office, are \u201cthe beating heart of our nation\u201d and deserve special attention, Bouteflika wrote.<\/p>\n

\nHe notably praised those who fought alongside him for Algeria\u2019s independence from colonial France and urged Algerians to live up to their example and honor their sacrifices.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Bensalah, the man expected to serve as interim leader, has led the upper house for most of Bouteflika\u2019s four terms. A one-time journalist and former ambassador, Bensalah has held senior political positions for the past 25 years but has kept a low profile, rarely giving interviews or appearing at public events.<\/p>\n

\nHe\u2019s known as a politician who works behind the scenes to strike compromises and solve problems, and who avoids controversial debates \u2014 and is very much part of the political elite.<\/p>\n

\nDemonstrators worry that those who would play a role in the political transition are too close to the distrusted power structure, including Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui, accused of contributing to fraud in the last presidential election in 2014 and cracking down on past protests.<\/p>\n

\nHowever, the protest movement doesn\u2019t have a single, unifying alternative to the current political system. Another question is what the influential military and Bouteflika\u2019s entourage will do next. Military chief of staff Ahmed Gaid Salah appeared to trigger Bouteflika\u2019s departure by pushing to get him declared unfit for office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALGIERS: A day after Algeria\u2019s Constitutional Council formalized Abdelaziz Bouteflika\u2019s departure Wednesday from the office he held for two decades, the ex-president himself asked the Algerians people for forgiveness. He urged citizens in a farewell letter \u201cto stay united, and never divide yourselves.\u201d A discreet, 77-year-old Bouteflika ally \u2014 the president of the upper house…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}