Protests against Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika continued on Saturday as civil society groups said that they refuse to meet with Lakhdar Brahimi as part of efforts to prepare for a transition period in the country.
Hundreds of people gathered in Kherrata to demand Bouteflika’s resignation, while also objecting to the extension of his fourth term in office.
Protesters also blasted the “president’s entourage”, which they accuse of corruption.
Meanwhile, civil society groups refused to meet with Brahimi to discuss the transition period.
Bouteflika yielded to the protests on Monday by postponing elections and dropping plans to stand for a fifth term. Brahimi is now likely to chair a conference planning Algeria’s future, a government source said, according to Reuters.
But his appointment has not go down well with protesters demanding rapid change. At 85, he is three years older than the president and from the same generation that has presided over Algerian politics since the 1954-62 war of independence against France.
Though not directly or publicly involved in national politics, he is a heavyweight of Algeria’s establishment, long viewed as a possible presidential candidate. He is close to Bouteflika.
“The voice of the people has been heard,” Brahimi said on state television after Bouteflika’s announcement that he would not seek a new term.
“Young people who took to the streets acted responsibly and gave a good image of the country. We must turn this crisis into a constructive process.”
Bouteflika has said his own final act will be to usher in a new system that will be in “the hands of a new generation of Algerians”.
The “inclusive and independent” national conference that Brahimi is expected to head is tasked with drafting a new constitution and setting a date for elections by the end of 2019.
It is likely to include prominent war veterans as well as representatives of the protest movement which has brought tens of thousands of people on to the streets since last month, political sources said, according.
Meanwhile, head of the leftist Workers' Party and former presidential candidate Louisa Hanoune denied that she had held talks with Brahimi.
She said her party does not need a “reminder of its historic stances during critical times.”
Separately, retired general Ahmed Adimi said that the solution to the impasse lies in Bouteflika’s resignation, dissolution of parliament and appointment of an independent and transparent political figure, who can manage the country’s affairs for six months.
The interim president can appoint a cabinet of technocrats that can prepare and oversee the presidential elections.
