[Published: Saturday March 22 2014]
Thousands join unprecedented Algeria rally
Algiers, 22 Mar - (ANA) - Thousands of Algerian opposition supporters have called for a boycott of next month's presidential election, during an unprecedented mass rally. Islamist and secular opposition parties at the rally denounced 77-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's attempt to win a fourth term of office. They say a stroke last year has left him unfit to govern. Mr Bouteflika, in power since 1999, scrapped constitutional rules in 2008 limiting him to two terms in office. He has rarely been seen in public in recent months, but correspondents say the backing of the governing National Liberation Front (FLN), army factions and business elites almost guarantees him election victory. Chanting "boycott" and "the people want the regime out" about 5,000 people packed into the sports stadium where various opposition leaders denounced Mr Bouteflika's re-election bid and demanded reforms to a political system they see as corrupt. Large opposition gatherings are unusual in Algeria, where FLN elites and army generals have dominated politics since independence from France in 1962. "The people here are the people who have been excluded, who have been put aside, but this is the real Algeria," Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) party spokesman Mohsen Belabes told cheering crowds. "The regime will collapse, but Algeria will survive." (ANA)
FA/ANA/23 March 2014----------
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