Despite the Algerian army’s call for a tougher stance on protestors, thousands of people came out on the streets of Algiers on Friday amid heavy security presence to demand the removal of the country’s powerful army chief, reported France 24. Friday’s protest marked the 31st consecutive week of rallies.
The demonstrators gathered near the iconic post office square in Algiers, the center of the months-old protests that forced longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign in April after being in power for more than two decades.
The protesters now want Army chief Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah, who emerged as an authority figure since Bouteflika’s removal, to step down.
“The people want the fall of Gaid Salah,” the protesters chanted. “Take us all to prison, the people will not stop.
“We want Gaed Salah to be removed,” some protesters chanted. “We want a civilian state, not a military state.”
Earlier this week, army chief Salah ordered military personnel, or gendarmes, to stop people from entering Algiers to protest. He ordered all buses and cars bringing protesters into the capital seized.
The get-strict order from the army chief comes after Interim President Abdelkader Bensalah on Sunday announced a December 12 date for a presidential election.
The army chief has been pushing for a vote for months as he claims the election is the only way to get Algeria out of the constitutional limbo created by Bouteflika’s departure. He claims protesters who are calling out for elections on their own terms are manipulated by others with malicious intent.
But, the protestors are not ready for elections until all traces of the Bouteflika regime, mired in corruption, including interim president Bensalah and Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui, step down from their posts and open the way for a new era for the gas-rich North African nation.
