The North Africa Journal – 9 April 2018: The possibility of President Bouteflika to run for another term is now increasingly likely. In fact, not only has he received the official endorsement of the ruling FLN party, but he has also toured projects in Algiers, despite being physically challenged and having been out of sight of the public for months. His Algiers excursion appeared a lot more like the start of a campaign, although he has yet to formalize it.
A strong signal as to Bouteflika’s ambition to stay in power is the ruling party National Liberation Front (FLN) urging him to run for a fifth term in 2019. Secretary-General Djamal Ould Abbes has openly and publicly shown support for the President during a meeting with party officials and cabinet members on 7 April. “The choice of running pertains to the President himself, but we at the FLN exhort President Bouteflika to win another term so he started in 1999” said the SG.
This decision comes a few days after Member of Parliament and millionaire merchant Baha Edine Tliba was referred to the disciplinary board of the FLN for recently forming a committee to support President Bouteflika in 2019 without a presidential authorization to do so. Djamel Ould Abbes had lashed out at the MP for “jumping the gun”.
With the FLN announcing its support to Bouteflika in a grandiose ceremony, this indicates that the Presidency may have reached a decision and given the green light to the FLN to endorse Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in an effort to pave the way for an upcoming official announcement.
Other majority parties, including the RND, the MPA, TAJ, are now expected to follow suit, and will announce support for the President, who is likely to set up his pre-campaign apparatus in the near future. So Algeria is headed toward continuity, with a physically diminished President likely to face no opposition, perhaps just a symbolic one.
