UPDATE - Army chief challenges Bouteflika's fitness for office

ADDS OPPOSITION PARTY STATEMENT

By Abdul Razak bin Abdullah

ALGIERS (AA) – Algerian army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah on Tuesday called for the activation of a constitutional article with the aim of having 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika deemed unfit for office.

In remarks broadcast on state television, Salah cited Article 102 of Algeria’s national charter, which states that the parliament speaker should assume executive authority in the event of the president’s incapacitation.

The speaker can hold the position of interim president for a maximum period of 90 days, during which presidential elections must be conducted.

The interim president, however, is not allowed to contest the poll, according to the constitutional article.

Reacting to Salah’s remarks, Movement of Society for Peace, Algeria’s largest Islamic party, called for the formation of a consensus government and an independent committee to oversee presidential polls.

It also called for the appointment of an interim prime minister and an independent electoral committee, and for the amendment of Algeria’s electoral laws.

The party also urged the public to continue staging peaceful anti-regime demonstrations “to ensure the people’s demands for reform are met”.

Last week, after weeks of demonstrations against his intention to run for a fifth term in office, Bouteflika indefinitely postponed polls -- originally slated for April 18 -- and officially withdrew from the running.

Nevertheless, Algerians have continued to stage demonstrations -- in several parts of the country -- against Bouteflika, who they accuse of unconstitutionally extending his fourth term in office.

In February, Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front nominated Bouteflika, who has ruled Algeria since 1999, to run for a fifth presidential term.

Opposition figures, for their part, had repeatedly urged the aging leader -- who in 2013 was treated for a blood clot in the brain -- to refrain from contesting the poll.