Defense Ministry tells Algeria's leader to quit immediately

ALGIERS, Algeria — The Algerian Defense Ministry called Tuesday for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit “immediately” after two decades in office, saying “there is no more time to waste” after six weeks of nationwide protests against the chief of state and his inner circle.

The ministry’s appeal came in a statement issued hours after Algeria’s powerful army chief, Vice Defense Minister Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah, presided over a meeting with senior army officials to discuss implementing a procedure in the constitution for removing a sitting president.

“Our decision is clear and irrevocable. We will support the people until their demands are fully and completely satisfied,” Gaid Salah said in the statement written with a menacing tone.

It came one day after Bouteflika said he would resign by the end of his fourth term on April 28, capitulating to growing calls for his resignation.

The 82-year-old president has rarely been seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013. In the meeting, Gaid Salah said a “gang” surrounds the president and writes all the statements in his name, according to the ministry statement.

But, fueling fears that he intended to install a hand-picked successor, the short Monday statement from Bouteflika’s office said he would take “important steps to ensure the continuity of the functioning of state institutions” before he leaves the office he assumed in 1999.

The announcement by Bouteflika that he would stand down before April 28 fell flat with protesters and opposition figures, who said it didn’t go far enough in creating dramatic change to Algeria’s secretive power structure.

Gaid Salah, signaled he was turning against the president last month amid the mass protests over Bouteflika’s 20-year rule. Gaid Salah proposed starting the procedure to have Bouteflika declared unfit for office, prompted allegations he was plotting a coup.

He kept his position in a new government named Sunday, though it was unclear why.

Bouteflika’s office said only Monday that the president would take “important steps” to ensure the continuity of Algeria’s institutions, fueling fears that Bouteflika’s entourage was seeking to cement its hold on power.

The Algerian Constitution calls for the head of the upper house of parliament, Bouteflika ally Abdelkader Bensalah, to act as interim leader for a maximum of 90 days while an election is organized.

It remains uncertain what will happen next in Algeria’s fast-changing political crisis, which is largely happening behind closed doors.

Protests calling for Bouteflika to resign have intensified since the first one February 22. He first was elected in 1999 and planned to seek a fifth term next month.

He postponed the election in response to the protests and said he would not run for re-election.

Students held more protests in central Algiers on Tuesday, and demonstrators are already planning for another nationwide action Friday.

But his opponents fear that will pave the way for a hand-picked successor instead of a truly democratic transfer of power.