Algeria’s ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will resign before his mandate expires on April 28, his office said Monday, after a succession of loyalists deserted him in the face of massive protests.
The 82-year-old, who has rarely been seen in public since a 2013 stroke, has been clinging to power as pressure mounted for weeks over attempts to prolong his 20-year rule.
Bouteflika will resign “before April 28, 2019”, after “important decisions” are taken, the presidency said in a statement, without specifying when these moves would occur.
He would take “steps to ensure state institutions continue to function during the transition period”, the statement carried by the official APS news agency said.
Algeria has been rocked by huge protests since the veteran president announced in February that he was seeking a fifth term in office.
Bouteflika said last month he would pull out of the race and postponed April elections, in moves that angered demonstrators who saw it as a ploy to extend his two decades in power.
As the ire failed to subside, a number of high-profile loyalists have deserted the president.
On Tuesday armed forces chief of staff General Ahmed Gaid Salah, who was appointed by Bouteflika in 2004, said the president should either resign or be declared medically unfit to govern by parliament using its constitutional powers.
And on Wednesday, key coalition ally the National Rally for Democracy (RND) headed by recently sacked prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia called for Bouteflika’s resignation “with the aim of smoothing the period of transition”.
Under the constitution, once his resignation is tendered, the speaker of Algeria’s upper house of parliament, Abdelkader Bensalah, would act as interim leader for up to 90 days during which a presidential election must be organised.