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Algeria's Bouteflika Resigns, Bowing to Weeks of Protest

Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Resigns, Report Says

(Bloomberg) -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has resigned, bowing to weeks of mass protests and growing pressure from the country’s powerful military to end his 20-year rule.

Bouteflika’s departure thrusts the OPEC member into uncharted territory. It’s not clear if his resignation will be enough to assuage demonstrators whose demands have expanded over six weeks to encompass the removal of the entire ruling elite. Spontaneous celebrations erupted in the capital Algiers, with drivers beeping car horns and crowds chanting: “This is a start, but there’s more to come.”

The independence war veteran’s announcement appeared aimed at avoiding an ignominious end. It came less than two hours after the army rejected his promise to step aside before the end of his fourth term on April 28, repeating, instead, its call to invoke constitutional articles that could see the 82-year-old declared unfit for office.

“Bouteflika officially notified the president of the constitutional council of his decision to end his mandate as president of the republic,” the official APS news agency reported.

Bouteflika ’Gang’

Once a close ally of Bouteflika, army chief of staff Ahmed Gaid Salah first broached the possibility of impeachment last week. On Tuesday, he released a strongly-worded statement in which he complained that the army’s proposal had been met with foot-dragging and deceit by the Bouteflika “gang”. Elite cronies profiting from the status quo and holding back change would not get away with it, Salah warned.

“It is the end of the Bouteflika regime,” Mustapha Bouchachi, a prominent human rights activist widely admired by young protesters, said in a telephone interview.“The mobilization has paid off handsomely for this generous people.”

The drama unfolding in Europe’s third-largest gas supplier is being closely watched across the Mediterranean. Under Bouteflika, the North African country has been a bulwark against Islamist militancy and illegal migration. Unrest in Algeria could ricochet far beyond its borders.

The upheaval began in February when Bouteflika, incapacitated by a stroke in 2013 and rarely seen in public, announced a bid to run for a fifth term in office in the face of popular opposition.

He quickly backtracked on his re-election plan, postponing the vote initially scheduled for April 18 and pledging to stay in office to shepherd the country through a transition that would include drafting a new constitution. That proposal was rejected on the streets, where protesters began to call for the removal of the entire political elite that has ruled the country for decades.

The tide finally turned against Bouteflika when the army announced it was standing with the people. Even then, he sought to buy time, unveiling on Sunday a new transitional government that was roundly dismissed by demonstrators as an extension of the ruling class that could not be lead their country into a new era.

Under the constitution, the president of the senate takes over from Bouteflika in the interim. But divisions within an opaque governing establishment have only deepened during weeks of protest and it was not clear who the ruling FLN party might nominate to replace Bouteflika or when fresh elections would take place.

A transitional period must start "with the appointment of a government of national accord tasked with preparing for the elections in the next phase,” said Bouchachi. Algerians “were clear and wanted the end of a regime that is represented by the entourage of the president.”

’Bouteflexit’

On the streets, protesters have steadily rejected one concession after another and are now demanding the removal of “le pouvoir,” a loosely defined ruling elite comprising of military officials, top businessmen and senior officials from the FLN, which led the war of independence against France from 1954-1962 and went onto dominate Algerian politics for decades.

“I’m happy that Bouteflika resigned but this is still a first step,” said Kamel, 30, on the street in Algeria’s Place Audin. “We need to focus on the next period to build out country.”

Emboldened by the army’s backing and suggesting that the FLN would be next in their sights, protesters waved Algeria’s green flag and chanted: “FLN go”.

“Bouteflika prolongs a tradition held since independence and under which no Algerian president has left in a normal manner,” Akram Belkaid, an Algerian writer and commentator, said on Twitter. “His resignation is ’Bouteflexit’ as it raises 1,001 questions.”

--With assistance from Samer Khalil Al-Atrush.

To contact the reporters on this story: Salah Slimani in Cairo at sslimani2@bloomberg.net;Souhail Karam in Rabat at skaram10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams

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