ALGIERS: Security
forces arrested 41 people during angry protests that rocked Algeria's capital
against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika seeking a fifth term, authorities
said yesterday. Police fired teargas on Friday afternoon to block a protest
march on the presidential palace, prompting demonstrators to respond with
stone-throwing. The Directorate General for National Security (DGSN), said
yesterday it had detained 41 people over "public disorder, vandalism,
damage to property, violence and assault". Despite the arrests, protests
around the country were largely tolerated by authorities, even in the capital,
where demonstrations have been strictly banned since 2001.

The police did
not give an estimate of the number of protesters, but a security official
speaking on condition of anonymity said that around 20,000 people had
demonstrated nationwide, around a quarter of them in Algiers. The official said
38 of the arrests were in the capital, and that no security personnel had been
wounded. Activists had used social media to call for nationwide protests
against Bouteflika on Friday after weekly Muslim prayers. The 81-year-old, who
uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke
in 2013, announced on February 10 that he will run for another term in an April
presidential election.

Clashes broke out
in the Algerian capital between security forces and demonstrators opposed to a
bid by ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a fifth term, AFP
correspondents said. Police in riot gear fired tear gas and set up a security
cordon to block access to the presidential palace by demonstrators who
responded with stone-throwing. Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered despite a
ban on protests in the capital, for a march which also took them to the
Mediterranean city's landmark Grand Post Office. The clashes broke out when
some protesters headed for the palace, four kilometers away and a number of
arrests were made.

"No fifth
mandate," chanted the mostly young demonstrators, many waving Algerian
flags, as they started to march through central Algiers. "Ouyahia, get
out!" the crowd also cried, referring to Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, a
Bouteflika loyalist heading the government for a third term. Some demonstrators
in Algiers scaled the outside of a building and tore down a poster bearing the
portrait of the 81-year-old president. An official ban on demonstrations in
Algiers was imposed in 2001. But in February 2018, thousands of trainee doctors
tried to hold a protest at the same venue. They were rapidly encircled and
their path blocked by police.

Activists used
social media to call for Friday rallies against Bouteflika across the country
after the weekly Muslim prayers, also filling the main square in Annaba, 400
kilometers east of Algiers with demonstrators, the TSA news website said. Other
gatherings were reported in several other cities, including in Oran, Algeria's
second largest. French-language daily El Watan, on its website, said crowds
also gathered in Ourgla where it said "thousands of demonstrators chanted
"the people want the fall of the regime", the slogan of the Arab
Spring revolts of 2011.

'Routine medical
tests'

Bouteflika, who
uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke
in 2013, announced on February 10 that he will run for another term in April
presidential polls. He spoke of an "unwavering desire to serve"
despite his health constraints and pledged to set up an "inclusive
national conference" to address political and economic reforms.

His office has
announced that Bouteflika will travel to Switzerland on Sunday for
"routine medical checks" ahead of the April 18 election. He has had a
long battle with illness and frequently flown to France for treatment.
Bouteflika is Algeria's longest-serving president and a veteran of its
independence struggle, who has clung to power for two decades despite long
years of ill health. Even before his stroke, a year before the last
presidential polls, Bouteflika had repeatedly shown himself to be a wily
political survivor.

He came to power
in 1999 with the support of an army battling Islamist guerrillas. He ran
unopposed for the presidency in polls later the same year and has been
re-elected since 2004 with an official tally each time of more than 80 percent
of the vote. "Boutef", as many Algerians have nicknamed him, was
instrumental in fostering peace after a decade-long civil war in the 1990s.
Known for wearing a three-piece suit even in the north African nation's
stifling heat, he gained respect from many for his role in ending the war,
which official figures say killed nearly 200,000 people.

But he has also
faced criticism from rights groups and opponents who accuse him of being
authoritarian. After his stroke, Bouteflika consolidated power in a country
where the shadowy intelligence service has long been viewed as a "state
within a state". When the Arab Spring erupted in January 2011, Bouteflika
rode out the storm by lifting a 19-year state of emergency and using oil
revenues to grant pay rises. In early 2016, he dissolved the all-powerful DRS
intelligence agency after dismissing its leader General Mohamed Mediene, known
as "Toufik", who had clung to the post for a quarter of a century. -
Agencies