Following weeks of protests against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid to seek a fifth term, Algeria’s army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah has demanded the ailing President Bouteflika to step down.
Addressing the nation in a televised address on Tuesday, the army chief said he considered the demonstrator’s demands to be valid and called out for the presidency to be vacated to pave the way for an end to Bouteflika’ 20 years in power.
“It is necessary, even imperative, to adopt a solution to get out of this crisis that responds to the legitimate demands of the Algerian people, and which respects and adheres to the constitution and safeguards the sovereignty of the state,” Lt Gen Salah said, reported BBC.
The army chief added that the solution to the problem has been stipulated in Article 102 of Algeria’s Constitution. As per Article 102, the Constitutional Council can declare the presidency vacant if the leader is too ill to exercise his functions, and then ask parliament to declare him unfit. In such a case, the leader of the upper house would take over in a caretaker capacity for 45 days.
As per reports, the Constitutional Council is now holding a special meeting after the speech. If the council decides to follow Article 102 and a two-thirds majority of the parliament’s lower and upper house ratifies the council’s decision then the head of the Senate, Abdelkhader Bansallah, would become the acting head of state until an election is held.
Notably, Mr. Bouteflika, who is paralyzed and in a wheelchair, has not spoken to his country in years since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2013. Although, the president reversed his decision and agreed not to stand for a fifth term in April election, he announced that he would continue be the head of state until a new constitution is adopted. He also called out for conducting a national dialogue conference to decide the timing for early elections.
