ALGIERS: Former Algerian premier Mouloud Hamrouche called for a “peaceful” change of the regime, which he said was no longer capable of running the country, joining a growing chorus of dissent.
Hamrouche said April’s presidential election, in which ailing leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika is expected to seek a fourth term after his candidacy was announced last week, was “pointless”, whether or not his mandate is renewed. “The factors paralysing (Algeria) are still there,” he told reporters at a press conference in Algiers.
“This regime has crumbled and will fall (which is why) I want to see it fall in a peaceful way, not in a wave of violence,” added Hamrouche, a pro-reform prime minister between 1989 and 1991 whose government was credited with the emergence of Algeria’s private press.AFP
