Senior ruling FLN party official says Bouteflika is “history”
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More signs are emerging in Algeria that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s time is up after a senior figure in the ruling FLN party said that he was now history.
The comments were made by Hocine Kheldoun, a former spokesman for the ruling party FLN, became one of the most senior party officials to break with Bouteflika publicly. He said the party had to look forward and support the aims of demonstrators protesting against Bouteflika.
On Friday, thousands of protesters gathered in central Algiers to keep pressing Bouteflika to step down.
The Algerian President has reversed a decision to stand for another term after mass protests against his rule, but stopped short of stepping down and says he will stay on until a new constitution is adopted. He has been losing allies in recent days since returning from medical treatment in Switzerland.
Bouteflika, 82, has been in office for 20 years but rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.
The remarks by Kheldoun were another major setback for Bouteflika, who hoped to pacify Algerians by promising to take steps to change the political landscape dominated by the president and the ruling elite for decades.
