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End of era: Former Algerian president Botflika dies at 84 | Israel today

2021-09-18T00:16:09.256Z


The former general, who planned a coup against the country's first president and brought an end to the civil war, was ousted about two years ago following a mass protest


End of an era:

Former Algerian President 'Abd al-'Aziz Bothflika died last night at the age of 84.

Bothplica ruled the country at a high level for more than two decades until in 2019 he lost power following a protest against his intention to continue for another term.

Before being elected president, he fought in the Algerian War of Independence and was one of the planners of the coup against the first Algerian president, Ahmad bin Bila.

He also served as Foreign Minister and even served as President of the UN General Assembly.

He first came to power in 1999 when he was elected as an independent candidate by a majority of 74% of the vote.

But in Felix he enjoyed the support of the army and the fact that the other candidates withdrew.

In 2004, he was re-elected by a majority of 85% of the vote against former chief of staff Ali Ben Felice.

In 2009 he was re-elected by a large majority when the opposition boycotted the election completely.

This was also the case in 2014.

In 2019 his intention to run for a fifth term was met with mass demonstrations, which led the army chiefs to remove him from power.

In the first years of his rule, Botflika brought to an end the Algerian civil war that took place mainly between the army and Islamist groups after an Islamist party won the election.

Botflika led a policy of pardons to members of organizations who did not murder or rape and turned over their weapons.

He even reached agreements with some organizations on disarmament.

Algeria, on the other hand, remains a country controlled behind the scenes by the military and whose freedom of expression in the media is limited.

Similarly, relations with its neighbor to the west, Morocco, remained strained, in part due to aid to the Polisario underground in Western Sahara.

The country recently announced the severance of relations with Morocco due to support for terrorist organizations, espionage and alleged statements by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

In the 2019 election, 'Abd al-Majid's Tavon won the presidential race with 58.1% of the vote.

In this election, there was a jump in the turnout to 60%.

However, Tavon himself was accused of being an army candidate.

During his tenure, the repression of demonstrations and journalists was reported.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-09-18

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