Algeria’s military chief says president Abdelaziz Bouteflika is unfit to govern and must go immediately.
the army chief and general Ahmed Gaed Salah said already in the weekend that the aging and sygdomssvækkede president was unfit to govern.
Tuesday’s statement that the 82-year-old president must resign immediately comes after a long meeting in the military’s stabsledelse. It grants a private tv-station in Algiers.
Bouteflika said Monday that he will go before his mandate expires 28. april.
There have been massive demonstrations against the 82-year-old Bouteflika, who is bound to a wheelchair and can hardly speak. The protesters believe that he is merely the puppet of a powerful elite, who really control the country.
Algeria has in the past six weeks has been marked by large protests against the Bouteflikas control. Friday was about a million people on the streets of the capital Algiers. The protesters have demanded that the Bouteflika go of.
There should have been elections in Algeria on 18. april, but it is postponed indefinitely.
Many of the Bouteflikas opponents believe that the postponement of the elections is a ploy by the regime.
The outgoing president appointed on Sunday a new government. The government is headed by the prime minister Noureddine Bedoui, who was appointed to the post recently. There is talk about an interim government, which consists of more technocrats and experts in their fields.
