ALGIERS, Algeria — Organizers in Algeria are predicting huge demonstrations across the country’s major cities as protesters step up their demand for the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

It’s the fifth straight Friday since nationwide anti-Bouteflika protests began Feb. 22 that Algerians have taken to the streets.

Workers of Sonatrach, the national oil company whose executives are close to Bouteflika, held a symbolic sit-in Thursday in solidarity with the protests that span all sections of society including the country’s youth and doctors.

New Prime Minister Nourredine Bedoui is still struggling to form a government with many potential candidates sought to keep their distance from the unpopular president.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> ALGIERS (Reuters) - A total of 183 people were injured during protests across Algeria on Friday against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for election to a fifth term, the state news agency APS said on Saturday, citing the health ministry.

Police officers try to disperse people trying to reach the government palace during a protest against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's plan to extend his 20-year rule by seeking a fifth term in April elections in Algiers, Algeria, March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

One person died of a heart attack, officials said earlier.

Tens of thousands of protesters called on the ailing, 82-year-old Bouteflika to abandon plans to seek re-election in an April presidential vote — Algeria’s biggest anti-government rallies since the Arab Spring eight years ago.

He has not formally confirmed he will stand, although representatives have indicated he will do so. APS reported on Saturday that Bouteflika had named Abdelghani Zaalane as his campaign director.

Friday’s protests were mostly peaceful but scuffles between police and protesters broke out in the evening near the presidential place in the capital Algiers.

Algiers was quiet on Saturday.

Large-scale demonstrations — rarely seen in Algeria with its ubiquitous security services — against Bouteflika’s re-election move began a week ago, but Friday saw the biggest turnout yet.

Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013 and has been seen in public only a few times since. His re-election bid stoked resentment among Algerians who believe he is not fit to run the major oil- and gas-producing country.

Bouteflika’s campaign manager had said on Tuesday he would submit his official application on Sunday, the deadline for candidates. Bouteflika, who turned 82 on Saturday, has not directly addressed the protests.

Authorities said last week he would travel to Geneva for unspecified medical checks. Swiss television said on Friday Bouteflika was at Geneva University Hospital. There was no official confirmation that Bouteflika was in the Swiss city.

Related Coverage Algeria's Bouteflika names new election campaign director

Many Algerians for years avoided politics in public, fearing trouble from the security services or disillusioned as the country has been run by the same group of veterans since the 1954-1962 independence war with France.

Bouteflika has ruled since 1999 and stamped out a decade-long Islamist insurgency early in his rule. Algerians have long tolerated a political system with little space for dissent as a price to pay for peace and stability.

A weak and divided opposition faces high hurdles in mounting an electoral challenge. Since the FLN party again picked Bouteflika as its presidential candidate, several parties, trade unions and business groups have endorsed him. </s> ALGIERS (Reuters) - A total of 183 people were injured during protests across Algeria on Friday against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for election to a fifth term, the state news agency APS said on Saturday, citing the health ministry.

One person died of a heart attack, officials said earlier.

Tens of thousands of protesters called on the ailing, 82-year-old Bouteflika to abandon plans to seek re-election in an April presidential vote - Algeria’s biggest anti-government rallies since the Arab Spring eight years ago.

The protests were mostly peaceful but scuffles between police and protesters broke out late on Friday near the presidential place in the capital Algiers.

Large-scale demonstrations - rarely seen in Algeria with its ubiquitous security services - against Bouteflika’s re-election move began a week ago, but Friday saw the biggest turnout yet.

Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013 and has been seen in public only a few times since. His re-election bid stoked resentment among Algerians who believe he is not fit to run the major oil- and gas-producing country.

Bouteflika’s campaign manager had said on Tuesday he would submit his official application on Sunday, the deadline for candidates. Bouteflika, who turned 82 on Saturday, has not directly addressed the protests.

Authorities said last week he would travel to Geneva for unspecified medical checks. Swiss television said on Friday Bouteflika was at Geneva University Hospital. There was no official confirmation that Bouteflika was in the Swiss city.

Many Algerians for years avoided politics in public, fearing trouble from the security services or disillusioned as the country has been run by the same group of veterans since the 1954-1962 independence war with France.

Bouteflika has ruled since 1999 and stamped out a decade-long Islamist insurgency early in his rule. Algerians have long tolerated a political system with little space for dissent as a price to pay for peace and stability.

A weak and divided opposition faces high hurdles in mounting an electoral challenge. Since the long-ruling FLN party again picked Bouteflika as its presidential candidate, several parties, trade unions and business groups have endorsed him. </s> A total of 183 people were injured during protests across Algeria on Friday against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for election to a fifth term, the state news agency APS said on Saturday, citing the health ministry.

One person died of a heart attack, officials said earlier.

Tens of thousands of protesters called on the ailing, 82-year-old Bouteflika to abandon plans to seek re-election in an April presidential vote — Algeria’s biggest anti-government rallies since the Arab Spring eight years ago.

He has not formally confirmed he will stand, although representatives have indicated he will do so. APS reported on Saturday that Bouteflika had named Abdelghani Zaalane as his campaign director. Zaalane replaced former premier Abdelmalek Sellal.

Bouteflika sacked his campaign manager Sellal on Saturday, state media reported, following mass protests against the ailing leader’s bid to stand for a fifth term in office.

Friday’s protests were mostly peaceful but scuffles between police and protesters broke out in the evening near the presidential place in the capital Algiers.

Large-scale demonstrations — rarely seen in Algeria with its ubiquitous security services — against Bouteflika’s re-election move began a week ago, but Friday saw the biggest turnout yet.

Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013 and has been seen in public only a few times since. His re-election bid stoked resentment among Algerians who believe he is not fit to run the major oil- and gas-producing country.

Bouteflika’s campaign manager had said on Tuesday he would submit his official application on Sunday, the deadline for candidates. Bouteflika, who turned 82 on Saturday, has not directly addressed the protests.

Authorities said last week he would travel to Geneva for unspecified medical checks. Swiss television said on Friday Bouteflika was at Geneva University Hospital. There was no official confirmation that Bouteflika was in the Swiss city.

Bouteflika has ruled since 1999 and stamped out a decade-long Islamist insurgency early in his rule. Algerians have long tolerated a political system with little space for dissent as a price to pay for peace and stability.

A weak and divided opposition faces high hurdles in mounting an electoral challenge. Since the FLN party again picked Bouteflika as its presidential candidate, several parties, trade unions and business groups have endorsed him. </s> ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Thousands of Algerians are demonstrating in the major cities of the oil-rich North African country, demanding the resignation of ailing, 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The number of protesters was much smaller than predicted by organizers, however, as rain appeared to dampen attendance on the fifth straight Friday since nationwide anti-Bouteflika protests began on Feb. 22.

Families joined professionals and students in the central squares of Algiers, the capital, holding signs reading “Get Out, Bouteflika” and “No Mandate Extension.”

Bouteflika last week indefinitely postponed April’s national election and overhauled the government. While he abandoned his bid for a fifth term in office, his simultaneous postponement of the election has critics worried that he intends to hold on to power indefinitely. He has been president since 1999.

Bouteflika, badly weakened by a 2013 stroke, has remained an enigma, with very few public appearances. The president returned earlier this month after two weeks in a Geneva hospital, but the exact state of his health is unclear.

Workers at Sonatrach, the national oil company whose executives are close to Bouteflika, held a symbolic sit-in Thursday in solidarity with the protests that span all sections of society.

New Prime Minister Nourredine Bedoui has promised to create a new cabinet within days to respond to the demands of Algeria’s demonstrators. Yet, Bedoui is still struggling to form a government, with many potential candidates seeking to keep their distance from the unpopular president. </s> Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has reportedly submitted official papers confirming he will seek re-election, despite mass protests against the move.

There was no official confirmation, but state news agency APS published his asset declaration on Sunday, which is a formal requirement to run in the election.

Tens of thousands of protesters had been rallying throughout the day in cities around Algeria to call for Bouteflika to step down.

Numbers were approaching the levels of Friday when demonstrators filled the centre of the capital Algiers in one of the biggest outpourings of dissent - rare in Algeria - since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Opponents of Bouteflika, 82 and in shaky health for years, say he is no longer fit to lead, citing his poor health and what they call chronic corruption and a lack of economic reforms to tackle high unemployment that exceeds 25 per cent among people under the age of 30.

Analysts say the protesters, who began hitting the streets 10 days ago, lack leadership and organisation in a country still dominated by veterans, like Bouteflika, of the 1954-62 independence war against France.

The government has played on fears among many Algerians of a return of bloodshed seen in the 1990s when an estimated 200,000 people were killed after Islamists took up arms when the military cancelled elections they were poised to win.

But the new series of protests have been generally peaceful, apart from Friday when scuffles with police left 183 injured.

Thousands of students gathered on Sunday at university faculties, one of them near the Constitutional Council where presidential candidates filed their papers, chanting: "No to a fifth term!" or "A free and democratic Algeria!"

There was heavy security around the Constitutional Council, and police prevented restive students from leaving the campus nearby, keeping the main gates shut. </s> Anti-government protests resumed in Algeria on Sunday as thousands gathered in the capital and other towns to demand Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika drop plans to stand for a fifth term, witnesses and residents said.

 

 In a rare wave of public opposition, Algerians have been taking to the streets since rallies calling on him to step down began 10 days ago.

Bouteflika, 82, in shaky health for years, was due to submit his official election papers at the Constitutional Council in Algiers on Sunday, the deadline for candidates.

 

 He need not do so in person, the state news agency APS said.

Bouteflika, rarely seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013, was still in Switzerland over the weekend for unspecified medical checks, according to Swiss media.

 

 Algeria’s weak and divided opposition and civic groups have called for more protests should Bouteflika, in power since 1999, confirm his re-election bid. But analysts say the movement is lacking a leader and organization in a country still dominated by veterans of the 1954-62 independence war against France.

 

 Hundreds of students gathered inside a university campus near the Constitutional Council where presidential candidates file their papers, chanting: “No to a fifth term!”

 

 Witnesses also reported protests in other higher education faculties in Algiers and cities such as Oran in the west of the North African country, a major producer of oil and natural gas.

 

 There was heavy security around the Constitutional Council, and police prevented students from leaving the campus, a roughly 10-minute walk away.

 

 The first candidate to submit his papers was Ali Ghediri, a retired general who is challenging the elite made up of military, ruling FLN party and business leaders. “I tell the people a new dawn has started,” he told reporters.

 

 Bouteflika changed his campaign manager on Saturday, state media said. He has not addressed the protests against him – the biggest since the 2011 uprisings that ousted long entrenched elites in a number of Arab countries, though not in Algeria.

 

 Opponents say that Bouteflika is no longer fit to lead, citing his poor health, and what they call undiminished corruption, and a lack of reforms to tackle high unemployment, and red tape hampering the economy.

 

 Friday saw the largest turnout to date in the protest wave, with tens of thousands in the streets. A total of 183 people were injured and one person died of a heart attack, APS said.

 

 Many Algerians avoided public political activity for years, for fear of trouble from the pervasive security services or out of disillusionment with the lack of change in the leadership.

 

 After a decade-long Islamist insurgency that Bouteflika stamped out early in his rule, Algerians have often tolerated a political system with little space for dissent as a price to pay for relative peace and stability. </s> Algerians set to continue protest for Bouteflika to quit

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Organizers in Algeria are predicting huge demonstrations across the country's major cities as protesters step up their demand for the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

It's the fifth straight Friday since nationwide anti-Bouteflika protests began Feb. 22 that Algerians have taken to the streets.

Workers of Sonatrach, the national oil company whose executives are close to Bouteflika, held a symbolic sit-in Thursday in solidarity with the protests that span all sections of society including the country's youth and doctors.

New Prime Minister Nourredine Bedoui is still struggling to form a government with many potential candidates sought to keep their distance from the unpopular president. </s> Anti-government protesters thronged the streets of Algeria's capital Algiers Friday, saying moves by top loyalists to abandon ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika were not enough.

Rallies were expected to take place across the North African country, where protests broke out more than a month ago when Bouteflika announced his bid for a fifth term.

Demonstrators turned out in huge numbers despite a succession of loyalists deserting the president and calling for him to step down and make way for a government-led change of leadership.

About one million people took to the streets of Algiers on Friday to demand the resignation of Bouteflika, police officers at the scene told Reuters, in the biggest demonstration since unrest erupted six weeks ago.

Police helicopters circled overhead and riot police vans lined sensitive neighborhoods, but the mood was largely festive.

Activists angrily rejected those moves as desperate bids by key figures in Bouteflika's entourage to salvage their own grip on power and demanded that they too quit.

"Bouteflika you go, take Gaid Salah with you," and "FLN out" protesters shouted, referring to the armed forces chief of staff and the president's party.

From the early hours of Friday crowds of demonstrators, many of them young but also including army veterans of Algeria's 1990s civil war, packed the square outside the capital's main post office, which has become the epicenter of protests.

"We're fed up with those in power," the demonstrators chanted. "We want a new government".

Some waved the green, white and red Algerian flag or draped it over their shoulders, while others held banners with slogans and cartoons.

Some made lengthy journeys to take part in the protest.

"We're here to issue a final appeal to those in power: 'Take your bags and go'," said Amin, a 45-year-old who travelled to the capital from the port of Bejaia, nearly 200 kilometers (125 miles) away.

Earlier this month, 82-year-old Bouteflika, who uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, said he would not stand for re-election -- but also postponed the April vote.

His move angered Algerians who saw it as a ploy by those around him to extend his two decades in power. Tens of thousands again took to the streets demanding his immediate ouster.

Faced with persistent public anger, a succession of veteran Bouteflika loyalists deserted the president this week.

On Tuesday, Chief of Staff General Ahmed Gaid Salah, who was appointed by Bouteflika in 2004, called for him to step down or be declared medically unfit.

The chief of staff on Tuesday cited Article 102 of the constitution, under which a president can be removed if found unfit to rule.

Long a faithful Bouteflika supporter, Gaid Salah said on television it was "imperative" to find a way out of the crisis "which responds to the legitimate demands" of the people in line with the constitution.

Article 102 of Algeria's charter empowers the Constitutional Council to determine if the president is unable to do his job due to a serious or enduring illness, and asks parliament to declare him unfit. In this case, head of parliament's upper house, Abdelkader Bensaleh, would serve as interim president for 45 days.

However, the opposition believes the enforcement of the article is not sufficient to ensure a democratic transition and fair elections.

On Wednesday, Bouteflika's longtime coalition partner, the National Rally for Democracy (RND) of former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, also called for him to step down.

The RND said it "recommends the resignation of the president... with the aim of smoothing the period of transition," in a statement signed by its leader Ouyahia.

A longtime supporter of the veteran president, the unpopular Ouyahia served as Bouteflika's prime minister three times since 2003 before being sacrificed on March 11 in a vain bid to calm the intensifying protests.

'All of you go'

The head of the powerful General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA), Abdelmadjid Sidi Said, also welcomed the army chief's call on Wednesday.

Applying Article 102 would constitute "the legal framework capable of overcoming the political crisis facing our country," he said.

Thursday saw the resignation of the president of Algeria's Business Leaders Forum, Ali Hadad, widely seen as a political tool of Bouteflika who had come under harsh criticism from protesters.

But the idea of Bouteflika's inner circle retaining their grip on power through a substitute leader drew short shrift from Friday's protesters.

Some chose humor to convey their rejection of the call for a government-led transition under Article 102.

"102 -- that number is out of service," said one placard held up by the crowd outside the main post office and telephone exchange. "Please call the people."

Others raised a banner saying: "We demand the implementation of Article 2019: All of you go."

"The way out is for Bouteflika to resign and for a transitional period to be run by another man than Bensaleh, who is part of the present regime," a protester in Algiers said.

"Those who have ruled Algeria over the past years and plundered public money will bow to the people's demands despite their attempt to cling to power," rights activist Abdel-Ghani Badi told dpa.

Elsewhere in Algeria, anti-Bouteflika demonstrators held peaceful marches in the provinces of Tizi Ouzou and Batna, local media reported.

The protesters, some cloaked in the national flag, chanted against the ruling elite: "You leave means you leave."
Tens of thousands of Algerians take to streets to protest President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid to seek re-election in 2019 presidential election in what is Algeria's biggest anti-government protests since the 2011 protests. 183 people have been injured.