8 minutes agoThe disabled president who cannot speak and walk but who has been leading for 20 years
Periskopi(7 years ago)
(7 years ago)Many Algerians find it hard to understand how their 82-year-old president, who suffered a heart attack last year and who cannot even walk or speak, is leading the country. It was amazing to see the announcement saying that Abdelziz Bouteflika would compete for [...] mandate.
It was incredible to see the announcement saying that Abdelziz Bouteflika would compete for the fifth term in April ? He didn't even go out on his own Sunday to register his candidacy, he translates Periscope from the BBC.
A wave of anger has moved students, professors, lawyers and even journalists to street protests they seem determined not to accept the continuation of the status quo, the rule of a virtually invisible leader.
Many worry that failure to find a successor for President Bouteflika, who came to power in 1999, could lead to unrest if he died in office.
The last time he appeared before the public was 2014 a victory speech to thank the Algerians for giving him their next confidence in his leadership.
He had cited plans “to reinforce power sharing, strengthen... the opposition's role and guarantee citizens' rights and freedoms”.
Some saw this speech as a sign of policy change in order to ensure a transition of power, yet there was no evidence of such a thing,
The Algerians have seen their leader briefly in 2016, until a conference was opening with photographs showing him in a wheelchair, appearing weak and tired.
But by 2018 it was unknown that his party was again leading him to the race for this year's elections.
Yet, the president who won the 2014 elections, despite not campaigning at all, has no serious challenge this time.
The ruling National Liberation Front party [ The FNL has ruled with the African country since this country gained independence from France in 1962 after a seven-year bloody war, Periscope next translates.
And it is the very legacy of the last civic war that seems to have imposed every attempt to reform politics.
Violence had left nearly 150 thousand Algerians dead, some of whom had been forcibly eliminated by security forces.
Other countries in North Africa have shown that a man's several-decade rule leaves a deep mark. In Libya, family members, neighbors, and friends did not trust each other under Muammar Gaddhafi's 42-year rule.
And the same distrust, even paralyzing, has been observed among the Algerians with the disabled president.
