Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika called on Monday for a collective ‘pursuit to reach power’ in a statement believed to show the President's desire to have the 2019 presidential election open to a large number of candidates and not exclusive to people currently in power.
It is not yet known whether Bouteflika intends to run for a fifth term, given his suffering from health inhibitors that could limit his activity.
In a message read on his behalf by Mujahedeen Minister Tayeb Zitouni on the occasion of the celebration of the Victory Day (19 March) at Ahmed Chami cultural center in Naama, the Head of State stressed that “the political scene must be suffused with diversity, confrontation of programs and race to power. Each Algerian must contribute to the pluralist democratic movement and place the supreme interests of the Algerian people above any other consideration.”
Bouteflika's desires for upcoming elections suggests one of two things-- either that chances of potential candidates must be equal, or that he intends to leave the presidency for contesting candidates.
Rivals say that the 2009 and 2014 presidential elections were about formalities, not choice, because other candidates (often four) never intended winning the race and were merely decorative.
It is worth noting that Bouteflika suffered a brain stroke on April 27, 2013. He lost control over some of his motor functions, including speech. Algerians practically never heard their president throughout his fourth term (2014-2019).
Although mounting opposition calls for early presidential elections, arguing that the president is unable to perform his duties, other political parties are urging Bouteflika to run for a new term.
“Inspired by our sacred values, Algeria resumed the construction process to make reconciliation prevail upon sedition and the supreme interests of our country upon our personal interests,” said Bouteflika.
“The spirit of the November Revolution and the Algerian people’s commitment to a full independence helped Algeria progressively nationalize the wealth of its people, despoiled by colonialism, starting with agricultural lands, mines and finally hydrocarbons, an achievement that took fifteen years.”
“This high nationalist spirit was behind the success of the process to build Algeria and make an old underdeveloped colony a prosperous country in terms of knowledge, industrialization and socio-economic progress. Independent Algeria is the fruit of the victorious November Revolution and the Victory Day we celebrate today,” he added.
“Facing the current oil price fluctuations worldwide, which resulted in the loss of half of Algeria’s external revenues, our country accommodates itself with the situation and seeks, under national sovereignty, to mobilize its capacities to surmount this difficult situation, maintain the construction process and move towards an economy less dependent on hydrocarbons,” he concluded.
