Algeria‘s presidential message that Bouteflika is pulling out from the presidential race is 3/4th victory for protesters, one fourth no so. Bouteflika says he will not run and elections are postponed, but no other person has been appointed to manage the transition. So let’s not call that a full surrender, because the absentee landlord will still have the key.
Algiers, March 11, 2019 (AFP) – Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his withdrawal Monday from a bid to win another term in office and postponed an April 18 election, following weeks of protests against his
candidacy. Bouteflika, in a message carried by national news agency APS, said the presidential poll would follow a national conference on political and constitutional reform to be carried out by the end of 2019.
The veteran leader, who has been in power since 1999 but whose rare public appearances since a stroke in 2013 have been in a wheelchair, returned Sunday from hospital in Switzerland. Demonstrations against his bid for another fifth term in office have brought tens of thousands of protesters onto Algeria’s streets.
