Site icon Middle East Monitor

Algerian radio: Constitutional Council did not meet to decide Bouteflika’s future

6 years ago

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on March 26, 2019 shows Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (L) during an official visit to Zeralda, a suburb of the capital Algiers on April 10, 2016, and Algeria's Chief of Staff General Ahmed Gaid Salah at the Houari-Boumediene International Airport in Algiers, on May 20, 2014. - Algeria's chief of staff called today for Bouteflika to be declared unfit to govern, following weeks of mass protests demanding the ailing leader to step down. (Photos by Eric FEFERBERG and Farouk Batiche / AFP /getty)

The Algerian radio said on Thursday that the Constitutional Council has not held any meetings so far to decide whether President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was qualified to perform his duties after the army called for dismissing him and his allies abandoned him.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the centre of the capital again demanding Bouteflika’s resignation and denouncing the country’s political regime as a whole, while chanting slogans accusing the ruling elite of being thieves who destroyed the country, reported Reuters.

Read: Army chief asks for Algeria’s Bouteflika to be declared unfit for office

Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaid Salah called on the Constitutional Council to decide whether ailing Bouteflika, 82, was capable of running the presidency.

The two Houses of Parliament must pass the resolution by a two-thirds majority.

For five weeks, protesters took to the streets demanding the end of his 20-year rule.

Under Article 102 of the Constitution, the President of the Council of the Nation Abdelkader Bensalah will become the interim President of the country for no more than 45 days after the departure of Bouteflika, but even if Bouteflika resigns, there is no known successor to him.

 

 

Exit mobile version