CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2019) Around 10 participants of protests against the nomination of long-term president Abdelaziz Bouteflika as a candidate for the upcoming presidential election had been injured in fighting with police in the country's capital of Algiers, local media reported.
Mass protests gathered thousands of people across Algeria on Friday with the largest number of demonstrators descending on the streets of Algiers. This prompted police to cordon off the area around the presidential palace and use tear gas against the protesters approaching it. The demonstrators, in their turn, threw stones on the law enforcement.
The demonstrators had been struck by police batons or injured by thrown stones near the presidential palace, El Watan news outlet reported on Friday.
The Algerian presidential election is scheduled for April 18. While opposition forces have not agreed upon a single candidate, the ruling coalition nominated Bouteflika, who is turning 82 on Saturday.
The president, who has been governing Algeria since 1999, spent several weeks in a hospital in France after a suffering a stroke in 2013. Since then, he rarely made public appearances.
