GUIDANCE

Algeria Reaches a Transitional Moment

Mar 13, 2019 | 21:13 GMT

Protesters rally in Algiers on March 8 against President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term. Bouteflika announced on March 11 that he would not seek re-election and then postponed the country's April 18 presidential election.

Protesters rally in Algiers on March 8 against President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term. Bouteflika announced on March 11 that he would not seek re-election and then postponed the country's April 18 presidential election.

(RYAD KRAMDI/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Algerian President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika's surprise announcement that he will not run in the next election in deference to public unrest and demands points to the uniqueness of this transitional moment in Algeria's modern history.
  • The three groups of stakeholders to watch amid the debate on a post-Bouteflika succession plan include the military elite, led by Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah; the business elite, including trade unions and business conglomerate bosses; and the two parties in the government's ruling coalition, the National Liberation Front and the Democratic National Rally.
  • Continued civil unrest will also foster an environment in which these stakeholders, who are fearful of losing control of the simmering Algerian street, must make space at the table for opposition parties and civil society groups that are often shut out of the political process.

Algerian President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika announced on March 11 that he would not run for a fifth term after all. He also postponed, without setting a new date, the country's presidential election that had been scheduled for April 18. Furthermore, Bouteflika repeated a call he made last week to convene a national conference by the end of the year to plan Algeria's future. A government reshuffle also followed Bouteflika's announcement. Officially scuttling plans for Bouteflika to run for a fifth term is remarkable for Algeria, where 53 percent of the population is under 30 and barely knows another president. But even though Bouteflika's announcement underlines the importance of the current transitional moment in Algeria, it also highlights how the ruling powers remain firmly in control, and that they are still struggling to hand off power to a new generation in a way that satisfies all the stakeholders in the Algerian government....

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