ALGIERS: A day after Algeria’s ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won a fourth term, many young people in the oil-rich nation wonder if the next generation will ever have a chance to rule.
Results announced on Friday by Interior Minister Tayeb Belaiz showed that Bouteflika, 77, won 81.53 percent of the votes in an election marred by low turnout and opposition claims of fraud.
His landslide came despite him not even campaigning in person for polling day on Thursday, when he made his first public appearance since May 2012 to vote from a wheelchair.
“Bouteflika is obsessed by the desire to rule. His generation will never agree to pull back and make room for younger people,” said Kamel, a 36-year-old opposition MP.
“His promise to pass the torch (to the next generation) is nothing but hot air,” he added.
Bouteflika’s campaign manager Abdelmalek Sellal told AFP before the vote that the president was determined to see young people play a more efficient role in the nation’s affairs.
Algeria has a population of around 38.5 million people, three quarters of whom are younger than 35, and yet the key leaders in Africa’s largest country are in their 70s.
Although Bouteflika remains very popular with many Algerians for helping to end a devastating civil war in the 1990s, many others have been clamouring for change.
High youth unemployment — 21.5 percent of under 35s are jobless, according to the International Monetary Fund — widespread corruption and sectarian unrest have all been used as arguments by youths and the opposition to demand change.
Bouteflika’s main rival in the election, Ali Benflis, received just 12.18 percent of the votes and has alleged fraud.
Yesterday, the 69-year-old said he will set up a new party in which young people will play a key role.
“Youths will have a major role in this project and in the future direction of the party,” an aide, Lotfi Boumghar, told AFP.
Analysts have warned of rising instability in Algeria over social problems and the government’s failure to address them.
They have also voiced fears that things will stagnate in Algeria because Bouteflika’s ill health means his cronies will continue to run the show.
“It is clear that Bouteflika’s re-election cements continuity” in Algeria, said analyst Rachid Grim.
AFP
