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

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Army Chief of Staff General Ahmed Gaed Salah
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After weeks of mass protests, Algeria’s powerful army chief of staff called on Tuesday for a constitutional move that would see President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika declared unfit for office, signalling an end to his 20-year rule.

Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah, addressing army officers in a speech broadcast on state TV, called for a unified stand to defuse tensions in the sprawling North African state, a major oil and gas exporter.

It is rare for the army to directly intervene during crises in Algeria but the hundreds of thousands of people who have been pushing the ailing Bouteflika to step down, as important allies deserted him, prompted the military to try and restore order.

Salah said the solution would be based on Article 102 of the constitution and achieve a consensus of “all visions and parties”. That article applies under certain conditions, such as deteriorating health. Bouteflika, 82, has rarely surfaced in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.

The next formal step is for the constitutional council to formally to declare Bouteflika unfit for office, a decision that members of parliament’s lower and upper house need to ratify by a two-thirds majority.

Based on Article 102, the chairperson of parliament’s upperhouse, Abdelkader Bensalah, would serve as caretaker president for at least 45 days in the nation of more than 40 million people.

El Bilad television said the constitutional council had convened in special session after Salah’s intervention. State TV opened with Salah’s announcement but there was no word on a constitutional council meeting.

On Tuesday night, the Huffpost Maghreb said a protest leader had rejected the army’s attempt to have Bouteflika declared unfit, saying the people instead wanted a national government of consensus – rather than any continuation of the secretive elite entrenched in power since independence from France in 1962.

“The Algerian people don’t accept that the government, or a symbol of power of this system, manages the transition period,” lawyer Mustapha Bouchachi said, according to the online outlet.

Algeria’s military has traditionally manipulated politics from behind the scenes. The last time it stepped in during a crisis was in 1992, when the generals cancelled an election.

That move triggered a civil war that killed an estimated 200 000 people. Algerians have dark memories of that conflict and the military is highly sensitive to any instability.

The stakes are high, for Algeria is a leading member of OPEC and a top gas supplier to Europe, though so far oil and gas output appears unaffected by the unrest, an International Energy Agency (IEA) official said on Tuesday.

Algeria is also regarded by Western states as a partner in counter-terrorism, a significant military force in North Africa and the Sahel, and a key diplomatic player in efforts to resolve crises in neighbouring Mali and Libya.

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