Algerians rally for change after presidential polls scrapped

ALGIERS: Hundreds of demonstrators packed the centre of the Algerian capital on Friday calling on the interim president to quit a day after he called for dialogue aimed at fixing a new date for elections as soon as possible.

A vote planned for July 4 was cancelled on Sunday in the face of widespread protests as demonstrators who forced the ouster of veteran president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April continued to demand a broad political overhaul.

Algeria’s constitutional council said it was impossible to hold elections to choose a successor to Bouteflika after the only two candidates were rejected.

Interim Algerian president Abdelkader Bensalah on Thursday urged the political class and civil society to hold an “inclusive dialogue” aimed at fixing a new date for elections “as soon as possible”.

But demonstrators who flooded central Algiers for the 16th consecutive Friday continued to demand change in the North African country, chanting “we’re fed up with these rulers”. They also called on Bensalah and army chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah — who has become the country’s power broker — to “clear off” as police deployed massively across the centre of the capital.

The protesters have been staunchly against presidential polls being held as long as the ruling elite, which they accuse of having links to Bouteflika, remain in power.

“The only condition for dialogue is that the current rulers must all go,” Maasi, a 26-year-old unemployed man who only gave his first name, said in response to Bensalah’s call for talks as he took part in Friday’s protest.

Hamid, a civil servant, added that any dialogue “should be with the real holder of power, and that means the army. Bensalah does not make the decisions”.

Dalia Ghanem Yazbeck, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Centre based in Beirut, said the protesters won points with the cancellation of the July 4 elections.

But on the other hand, she said, the planned polls “were a non-event because from a logistical point of view it would have been impossible to organise the elections”.

While Gaid Salah had pushed for the polls, July 4 looked increasingly implausible as no major party nominated a candidate.  — Reuters