Algeria’s ruling party FLN picked on Saturday President Abdulaziz Bouteflika to run for reelection in the April 18 presidential elections.
Bouteflika, 81, who has been in office since 1999 and rarely been in public since suffering a stroke in 2013 that confined him to a wheelchair, will be seeking a fifth term.
“We at the FLN we have decided to pick Bouteflika as our candidate for the April presidential election. Let’s be ready for the campaign,” party leader Moad Bouchareb told about 2,000 supporters at a sports stadium in Algiers.
“We have chosen him because we need continuity and stability,” he added.
Bouteflika will still need to make a formal announcement, probably in a letter that will be read on his behalf, before March 3.
Bouteflika’s poor health had led to months of uncertainty about whether he would stand for election again.
His reelection would offer short-term stability for the elites of the FLN, the army and business tycoons, and postpone a potentially controversial succession.
But the president will need to find a way to connect with the North African country’s young population, almost 70 percent of which is aged under 30.
The opposition says he is not fit to run again and several candidates, including retired general, Ali Ghediri, have said they will challenge Bouteflika.
The government has said it wants to diversify the economy away from oil and gas, but there has been resistance from those within the ruling elite to opening up to foreign investment.
That has left the economy dominated by the state and firms run by business tycoons.
