Algerians protest president’s planned bid for 5th term

By Hassan Jebril</p> <p>ALGIERS (AA) – Demonstrations have resumed in several Algerian cities against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid to secure a fifth term in office in elections slated for April 18.</p> <p>Thousands of students from the University of Algiers marched through the streets of the capital on Tuesday chanting anti-Bouteflika slogans.</p> <p>Marchers were reportedly joined by thousands of others at the city’s Maurice Audin Square.</p> <p>Tuesday’s demonstrations were accompanied by heavy security across the capital, with the authorities temporarily closing several underground stations.</p> <p>Similar protests were reported in other Algerian cities on Tuesday, including Tiaret, Tebessa, Jijel, Setif and Sekikda.</p> <p>Last month, Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front nominated the 82-year-old Bouteflika — who has ruled Algeria since 1999 — to run for a fifth term in office. </p> <p>Opposition figures have repeatedly urged the wheelchair-bound leader, who in 2013 was treated for a blood clot in the brain, to refrain from contesting the upcoming poll.</p> <p>Several opposition figures have already withdrawn from the election to protest Bouteflika’s planned bid to secure a fifth term.</p> <p>These include Louisa Hanoune, secretary-general of Algeria’s Labor Party; Ali Benflis, a former prime minister; and Abderrazak Makri, head of Algeria’s Movement for Society for Peace.