THE RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT BOUTEFLIKA CLOSE - World - DayNewsWorld

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THE RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT BOUTEFLIKA CLOSE
After the army is the turn of the party RND, main ally of the Algerian president, to claim in a statement released Wednesday, March 27, the resignation of the latter. The announcement, made by former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, comes after the statement by the army chief of staff, who asked the Constitutional Council to declare President Bouteflika unfit for the job. Indeed, the military no longer seem to support Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the head of Algeria. Ahmed Gaid Salah, the chief of staff of the army loyal to the Algerian president so far, asked Tuesday, March 26, 2019 to initiate the procedure provided by Article 102 of the Constitution, when the President of the Republic "Because of serious and lasting illness, it is totally impossible to perform his duties". Weakened since 2013 by the after-effects of stroke, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been facing unprecedented protests for more than a month. Admittedly, he has given up a fifth term, but has postponed indefinitely the date of the presidential election, originally scheduled for April 18, after the drafting of a new constitution. He would remain in power after April 28, the end of his term. But civil society demands above all a rapid change. And clearly within the army, soldiers and officers were not ready to turn against the people what seems to have understood the general so far most loyal to President Bouteflika. "It becomes necessary, even imperative, to adopt a solution to get out of the crisis, which responds to the legitimate demands of the Algerian people, and which guarantees the respect of the provisions of the Constitution and the maintenance of the sovereignty of the State," said General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, also vice-minister of defense, in a speech broadcast on national television. But in any case the distancing of the army vis-à-vis President Bouteflika means a consensus at the top of the state to avoid a violent break. Indeed if the procedure is initiated, the president of the Council of the Nation will then take the interim for 45 days. And if the president is declared unfit at the end of this period, the "vacancy" of power is declared. The interim then continues for a maximum of 90 days, during which a presidential election is organized. "Only the quick passage to an election will renew the institutions," according to constitutionalist Fatiha Benabbou.



Jenny Chase for DayNewsWorld