Algerian protesters marched through central Algiers on Wednesday to demand that a presidential election planned for Thursday be canceled, chanting that they would not vote in a poll they regard as a charad
Protesters say the vote is a charade and they want the entire ruling elite to step down and the military quit politics.
They chanted “No election tomorrow” and held up banners reading “You have destroyed the country”.
All five of the state-approved candidates running on Thursday are former senior officials linked to the former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika whom the army forced aside in April in response to the protests.
Algeria’s political stalemate between the enormous protest movement and a state increasingly dominated by the military has put at stake the political future of one of Africa’s larger countries.
Algeria is a nation of 40 million people and is a major gas supplier to Europe
Army chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah, who has emerged as Algeria’s most powerful political player since Bouteflika was ousted, has pushed for Thursday’s vote as the only way to resolve the political crisis.
