Ailing Algerian President Bouteflika returns home
Algiers, Algeria (PANA) - Ailing Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose decision to run for a fifth term in April's presidential election has triggered widespread protests, returned home on Sunday after two weeks of medical checkup in Switzerland.
State media said Bouteflika, 82, arrived at a military airport near Algiers.
Reliable information received by PANA indicated the presidential jet of Bouteflika on Sunday landed at the Geneva international airport to bring him back to Algiers.
It was the same jet that took him there on 24 February for a "routine" medical checkup.
Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013 and has rarely been seen or heard in public.
Algerian political activists on Sunday called for a general strike and civil disobedience to precede Tuesday’s announcement by the constitutional council of candidates officially shortlisted for the 18 April presidential election.
The local media reported on Sunday that traders have begun withdrawing some basic consumer products following repeated appeals for civil disobedience to force President Bouteflika to withdraw his candidature.
Similarly, the Algerian ministry of higher education has decided to close the country’s universities and the students’ residences because of the popular demonstrations, and announced spring holidays from 10 March to 4 April.
The Algerian council of university professors has rejected the decision of the ministry to review the vacation period for the spring holidays, calling for sit-ins at universities.
-0- PANA MA 10March2019
