ALGIERS: More than two dozen Algerian political parties have given their support for a fourth term for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has yet to announce whether he will run again just two months before the election.
Bouteflika, 76, suffered a stroke early last year before returning to work amid speculation over his ability to seek re-election in Algeria, a key gas supplier to Europe and a U.S. partner against Islamist militants in North Africa.
Allies in the ruling FLN party say Bouteflika is their only candidate as the man who helped bring stability to Algeria after a civil war in the 1990s. But the deadline to officially register his candidacy is March 4, according to electoral law.
The list of Bouteflika’s backers for re-election expanded this week, and now includes two ruling parties FLN and RND, 26 smaller parties led by transport minister Amar Ghoul, most of the country’s unions, and Rabah Brahimi, of the FDL party.
Most of those are political movements already allied with the FLN, a signal Bouteflika’s backers may be strengthening their position before his official announcement. Should he announce he will run again, Bouteflika, who has governed Algeria since 1999, will almost certainly win due to the FLN nationalist party’s dominant role and his backing from the party’s machinery and its allies.
Opposition parties are still weak and most Algerians have little appetite for upheaval after the civil war with militants that killed around 200,000 in the 1990s. “I will vote for him dead or alive because he has done so much for the country,” FDL’s Brahimi told a TV programme in comments, that surprised Algerians. Bouteflika returned home few weeks ago from a visit to a Paris hospital for check-ups, fuelling speculation he may be preparing to step side and pass on to a successor, such as his current Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.Reuters
