ALGIERS: Veteran Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika flew home yesterday after a Paris medical check-up that had raised questions about his ability to run for a fourth term in April.
Bouteflika, 76, has ruled the north African nation continuously since 1999 but a mini-stroke that confined him to a Paris hospital for three months last year has created concerns for the political future of a country seen as pivotal to the fight against Al Qaeda across the Sahara.
The president’s office had insisted that the check-up was entirely routine and Algeria’s APS news agency reported that it had found “an overall improvement” in his health that had enabled him to return home earlier than planned.
Bouteflika has until Sunday to convene the organising committee for April’s election in which the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) named him as its candidate in November despite his failing health.
Bouteflika’s presidency has been dogged by health concerns since as far back as 2005, when he underwent surgery in Paris for a bleeding stomach ulcer, and with a leaked US diplomatic cable two years later suggesting he might be suffering from terminal cancer.
The transient ischaemic attack, or mini-stroke, that he suffered last April kept him out of the country until late July and he has not been seen in public since.
But he has never named a favoured successor.
AFP
