Algerian president steps down after weeks of protests
In power for 20 years, Abdelaziz Bouteflika had said he would quit before end of term April 28
Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has submitted his resignation, state news agency APS said on Tuesday, following weeks of mass protests against his rule.
The ailing 82-year-old leader stood down shortly after the army chief of staff demanded immediate action to remove him from office.
"There is no more room to waste time," state news agency APS quoted Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah as saying.
On Monday, Bouteflika, who was in power for 20 years, had said he would quit before the end of his term on April 28.
But a protest leader and opposition parties rejected this as insufficient, while hundreds of students marched through the capital Algiers to demand to replacement of a political system widely seen as incapable of significant reform.
Demands for overhaul of political system
Bouteflika had rarely been seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013.
After his resignation, hundreds of Algerians took to the streets of the capital waving Algerian flags or driving in convoys through the city centre, where on Feb. 22 mass protests broke out.
"Allahu Akbar (God is Great)," shouted a man. Someone else held up a banner saying: "Game over."
Pressure had been building during the day with opposition groups demanding Bouteflika go immediately, while hundreds of students marched through the capital Algiers to demand the replacement of a political system widely seen as incapable of significant reform.
"Bouteflika's decision (to resign by the end of his term) will change nothing," Mustapha Bouchachi, a lawyer and protest leader, told Reuters earlier on Tuesday.
Bouteflika's resignation will put Abdelkader Bensalah, chairman of the upper house of parliament, in charge as caretaker president for 90 days until elections are held.
Bouchachi had suggested Bouteflika's nomination of a caretaker government was a move to perpetuate the current political system.
'Peaceful protests will continue'
"What is important to us is that we do not accept the (new caretaker) government. Peaceful protests will continue."
A veteran of Algeria's war for independence, Bouteflika was first elected president in 1999 and established himself by ending a civil war with Islamist militants that killed an estimated 200,000 people.
But the country remains mired in corruption and, in a sign that the end for Bouteflika's rule had been approaching, several oligarchs close to his camp were banned from traveling abroad in the past few days, part of a crackdown against his allies.
"The gang has made big money illegally taking advantage of its closeness with decision-makers," Salah said, according to APS, referring to unnamed business people.
The protests have been driven by the country's youth and lawyers demanding the removal of a ruling elite seen by many as out of touch with ordinary Algerians and presiding over an economy riven by cronyism.