Algeria ruling party wants Bouteflika to run for fifth term

The Algerian ruling National Liberation Front has asked President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a fifth term in 2019.

The party’s Secretary-General Djamel Ould Abbes said on Saturday that the National Liberation Front’s members want Bouteflika to continue the mission he started in 1999 as head of state, however Ould Abbes said it is up to the president whether or not he will stand.

The next presidential election is likely to take place in April or May 2019.

Speaking to the Anadolu Agency, a member of the party’s political bureau, Al-Sadeq Qataya said: “A majority of the party’s central committee members – who are elected – have submitted requests … asking the president to continue leading Algeria.”

Eighty-one-year-old Bouteflika is currently serving his fourth consecutive term as president of the Republic. In April 2013, the president suffered a stroke that left him unable to move or speak he has made few public appearances since.

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