The following article was commissioned by an online media and written on Monday, March 11 2019, a few hours before the date for the upcoming presidential election was postponed and president Bouteflika announced he would not be running again. It was heavily edited with a title that doesn’t befit the text. Here is the original version.
On Friday March 8 2019,1 Algeria experienced one of the largest waves of demonstrations in the country’s history. Algerians took to the streets in protest against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika running for a 5th term in the presidential elections scheduled for 18 April. The protests have grown steadily since February 22, including not only the major cities of Algiers, Oran and Constantine, but also smaller cities and towns across the largest country in Africa. Students (and women make up the majority of Algerian students today) joined the protest on the February 22. The presence of women became even more spectacular as last Friday was also International Women’s Day.
- photo: Slogans in preparation for the March 8 2019 demonstrations, Twitter, Farah Souames. [↩]