Algeria’s powerful army chief has asked for the country’s ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to be declared unfit for office following weeks of mass protests against his rule.
General Ahmed Gaed Salah, the army’s chief of staff, said Tuesday in remarks carried by Algerian television that the solution to the country’s political crisis was to apply Article 102 of the constitution, under which the president could be declared unable to perform his duties due to serious illness.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been protesting for weeks to demand an immediate end to Bouteflika‘s two-decade rule, and call for a new era with younger leaders who can offer greater social freedoms and a healthier economy.
Bouteflika, who has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, bowed to protesters earlier this month by reversing plans to stand in elections for a fifth term and promising reforms to make the political system more inclusive.
Via France 24 / Algerian TV
