Algerian longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down in a public broadcast late on Tuesday by handing a resignation letter to the head of the Constitutional Council, Tayeb Belaiz
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2019) Algerian longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down in a public broadcast late on Tuesday by handing a resignation letter to the head of the Constitutional Council, Tayeb Belaiz.Dressed in a traditional Algerian shirt, the 82-year-old leader, weakened by a stroke he suffered in 2013, did not address the nation after years of not speaking publicly for health reasons.
Bouteflika was born on March 2, 1937, to a family from the city of Tlemcen in northwestern Algeria.
In 1956, he joined the National Liberation Front, an organization that led an armed and political fight for Algeria's independence from France. Despite his young age, Bouteflika was entrusted with important missions, both military and diplomatic.
Young Bouteflika was sent to the south of Algeria, to the border with Mali, where he had to establish relations with local tribes and ensure the supply of weapons to the Algerian resistance. Bouteflika performed well in the job, after which he became known by the alias Abdelkader al-Mali.
After Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, Bouteflika became a member of the Constituent Assembly for Tlemcen and was then appointed as the minister for youth, sport, and tourism.
In 1963, at the age of 26, he became the youngest foreign minister at that time and retained the position until 1979. It is believed that in this role he contributed greatly to making Algeria one of the leaders among other developing countries.
Bouteflika was in contact with Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and received the future South African leader Nelson Mandela in Algeria. As president of the UN General Assembly in 1974, Bouteflika gave then-leader of Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat the opportunity to address the United Nations and deliver his now historic speech.
Bouteflika was considered a close associate of then-Algerian President Houari Boumediene and after his death was forced to leave Algeria and live in exile. He returned to his homeland in 1987 and devoted himself to political activities in the ranks of the National Liberation Front, which was the ruling party at the time.
Algeria became a multiparty state in 1989 and three years later, Islamists won the parliamentary elections. However, the Algerian military stopped the electoral process, triggering armed clashes with extremists. This period of internal conflict in Algeria is called the "Black Decade." About 150,000 people were killed as a result of terrorist attacks, clashes, and the actions of security forces.
At the height of the conflict between the Islamists and the Algerian military, Bouteflika was offered the presidency. He refused, however, believing that the time was not right.
He later agreed to run for the highest office in the country as a compromise politician, something that various forces in the state, including the military and moderate Islamists, were in agreement on.
Bouteflika was elected head of state for the first time on April 15, 1999, with more than 73 percent of the votes. He also sought the support of the population in a referendum on September 16 and started to introduce a policy of national reconciliation, which included amnesty for the Islamists.
"One way or another, in this decade we are all victims. But does this mean that we should continue to move toward collective suicide? No, three times no," Bouteflika said in one of his speeches.
In 2004, Bouteflika was re-elected to a second term and continued the reconciliation efforts. During his second presidential term, Bouteflika was able to finally put an end to the armed confrontation between the army and the Islamists, restore security, and return foreign investment to the country.
The constitutional amendments, which were passed in November 2008, allowed Bouteflika to run for the presidency again. Previously, Algerian basic law allowed only two consecutive terms. According to Bouteflika, however, a third term was needed to allow him to continue implementing his program on national reconciliation.
He won the election in 2009 with more than 90 percent of the vote. After facing the 2011 Arab Spring protests, Bouteflika announced economic reforms. It is believed that Algeria managed to maintain stability during the Arab Spring thanks to the high revenues from the sale of oil and gas. The Algerian government unveiled plans in 2014 to allocate $262 billion for infrastructure development over the following five years.
In 2013, Bouteflika spent several weeks in a hospital in France as a result of a ministroke. He has since been confined to a wheelchair and rarely seen in public. Despite this, he was re-elected as head of state in 2014. Since that election, however, the leader has been spending a significant part of his time being treated abroad.
On February 10, 2019, Bouteflika officially announced his plans to seek a fifth term in the office. Anti-government protests against his bid began in Algeria on February 22. Amid these protests, which were the largest the country had seen, Bouteflika promised that if he won the election, he would begin his fifth term with reforms and hold an early presidential election in which he would definitely not run.
"This and other decisions have indicated the desire to preserve state institutions, prevent a vacuum, and, as a result, the possible intervention of foreign states or the United Nations," Egyptian constitutional law expert Tahani al-Gebali told Sputnik.
Protesting Algerians did not believe him, however, and continued to demand their leader's immediate resignation. The army later joined the protesters in their call. On Tuesday, April 2, after another sharp statement from the chief of staff of the Algerian Army, Bouteflika notified the Constitutional Council of his resignation.
"After 20 years of Bouteflika's rule the longest in the entire history of Algeria the country experienced a historic day. In 1999, his rule began with a slogan 'The President for Everyone', and ended with the virtually unanimous calls for resignation," Algerian daily newspaper El Khabar reported.
The newspaper noted, however, that the former president was unable to fulfill one of his desires to end his life while still in office.
