Algeria: Protestors Take To Streets To Protest Against Abdelkader Bensalah’s Appointment As Interim President

Soon after Algeria’s parliament named upper house speaker Abdelkader Bensalah as the country’s interim president, the masses once again took to the streets in huge numbers to express their furor over the appointment, demanding “Bensalah go.”

Bansalah was named as Algeria’s interim president after the ailing Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned last week after two decades in power following mass protests. The people of Algeria are unsatisfied with Bensalah’s appointment because he is a key ally of the former president, who had been in power for 20 years, and a seasoned insider, reported BBC.

Soon after Bensalah’s name was announced, thousands of students protested in Algiers on Tuesday.  The security forces were forced to fire tear gas and water cannon at the demonstrators protesting against the appointment of a new interim president who is a part of the ruling order they have been seeking to remove. The protesters are demanding more radical change.

“They haven’t heard us, we will continue to march!” protesters shouted, holding handwritten placards and Algerian flags.

According to Algeria’s Constitution, both chambers of the assembly formally confirms the vacancy of the presidency and elects an upper house president to run the country on an interim basis for three months until elections. Bensalah will now serve as Algeria’s President for up to 90 days, during which a presidential election will be organized.

“I want to work towards fulfilling the interests of the people,” the 77-year-old leader told parliament on taking up the 90-day interim presidency. “It’s a great responsibility that the constitution demands of me.”

Mr Bensalah pledged to organize free and fair elections within 90 days.

“We – citizens, the political class and state institutions – must work to ensure the conditions, all conditions, are right for a transparent and regular presidential poll,” he said during a televised address on Tuesday.

The opposition parties abstained from Tuesday’s session in parliament as they didn’t approve of Bensalah’s appointment as the interim President of Algeria.