Algerian PM to protesters: 'Let ballot box decide'

By Abdul Razzaq bin Abdullah

ALGIERS

All citizens have the right to support or oppose presidential candidates, “but the ballot box must have the last word”, Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said Monday.

The assertion comes three days after demonstrations erupted in several Algerian cities, including capital Algiers, to protest President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s planned bid for a fifth term in office.

“The elections will take place in less than two months,” Ouyahia said. “They will provide an occasion for our people to choose [their leaders] freely.”

He added: “It’s the right of all citizens to support or oppose any candidate; but the final word [i.e., the election] should be done in a peaceful and civilized way.”

Protests last Friday saw demonstrators chanting slogans against Bouteflika’s planned bid for a fifth presidential term. Others explicitly called for the resignation of his government.

Recent days have seen mounting calls on social media for demonstrations against Bouteflika's controversial decision to run in the April 18 poll.

Earlier this month, Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front officially nominated the 81-year-old Bouteflika -- who has ruled Algeria since 1999 -- to run for a fifth term in office.

Opposition leaders, for their part, have repeatedly urged the aging president, who in 2013 was treated for a blood clot in the brain, to refrain from contesting the election.