Tens of thousands protested across Algeria on Friday in the biggest rallies yet against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term, despite the defiant leader’s warning of the risk of “chaos”.
A march in the capital Algiers was slowed to a near-crawl by the huge numbers taking part, swelled by women marking International Women’s Day and chanting “No fifth term — hey, Bouteflika!” Waving Algeria’s green-white-and-red flags, men and women converged on the city’s landmark Grand Post Office square after weekly prayers.Waving Algeria’s green, white and red flag, men and women converged on the city’s landmark Grand Post Office square, as youths staged a peaceful march, journalists said.
Security in Algiers was tight, with anti-riot vehicles out in force, alongside a water cannon, as a police helicopter hovered overhead, although the past two weeks of demonstrations have been mostly calm.
In a message released on the eve of the fresh protests, Bouteflika warned that trouble-makers may try to infiltrate the demonstrations.
“Many of our fellow citizens” have demonstrated across the North African country “to peacefully express their views”, he said.
“However, we must call for vigilance and caution in case this peaceful expression is infiltrated by some insidious party... which could cause chaos,” he said, without mention of the demands that he abandon his bid to seek re-election.
Bouteflika flagged the risk of a return to the “national tragedy” of Algeria’s decade-long civil war in the 1990s and of the “crises and tragedies caused by terrorism” in neighboring countries.
Algeria has largely avoided the conflicts unleashed by the Arab Spring uprisings that brought down rulers in neighboring Tunisia and Libya.
But discontent, particularly among the country’s youth, turned to anger after the veteran leader announced on Feb. 10 that he would seek another bid for power.
Calls have circulated widely on social media under the hashtag “#March 8 Movement” for massive but peaceful demonstrations in the capital and cities across the North African state.
“I will not throw a single stone!” and “No windows will be smashed,” were among “18 commandments” sent out to participants by poet and writer Lazhari Labter, as well as instructions to clean up streets after the protests.
He also called for demonstrators to turn the event into “a day of celebration” and one of “love, faith, Algerian flags and roses”.
Volunteers have signed up to marshal protest routes, provide first aid and to clean up, while drivers have offered to shuttle participants to venues from outside city centers.
The country’s leaders “will not give in easily, but we won’t either”, said a taxi driver, summing up the popular mood.
He said that on Feb. 22, at the first Friday protests, less than half the residents of his district of Algiers had turned out.
“On March 1, about two out of three said they would march, and (now) 100 percent of people are saying they will be out on the streets,” he said, declining to be named.
Bouteflika uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, and his bid to secure another term at the April 18 election has sparked waves of protests.
Despite a ban dating back to 2001, demonstrations have been staged almost daily in Algiers since a massive rally two weeks ago.
Bouteflika has been in Switzerland since Feb. 24 for what the presidency has described as “routine medical tests”, and a date for his return home has not yet been announced.
His latest message came on Thursday as around 1,000 lawyers took to the streets of Algiers, arguing that his ill health should disqualify him from the race.
They breached police cordons to march on the Constitutional Council, the body responsible for approving the candidacy of those registered to contest the poll.
The police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters who tried to force their way through a police cordon that was blocking access to a road leading towards the presidency, a journalist said.
But the overall atmosphere was calm and festive, and numerous people attended with their children.
In the late afternoon in central Algiers the massive crowd protested in the absence of police, who melted away from the area.
Dozens of police vehicles that had been deployed in the morning at the Grand Post Office square were withdrawn, after being swamped by crowds.
Huge crowds — again far surpassing those seen the previous Friday — also protested in the second and third cities of Oran and Constantine, local journalists on the ground said.
A journalist in Oran said the whole city “is out (on the streets)... this has never been seen before”.
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