Algerian Interim President Promises Free Elections in July

Algeria’s newly-named interim president, Abdelkader Bensalah, promised on Wednesday to hold free elections on July 4. Algeria’s parliament officially confirmed Bensalah, who chairs the national legislature’s upper house, as acting head of state for 90 days, replacing the ailing Abdelaziz Bouteflika after weeks of mass protests that led to the latter’s resignation and an end to his 20-year rule. Algeria’s military chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Ahmed Gaed Salah, had called for the country’s constitutional council to declare Bouteflika unfit for office. The wheelchair-bound 82-year-old, rarely seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, also had the option of resigning. The choice of Bensalah as interim leader was rejected by demonstrators, who see him as part of an ageing ruling elite in power since the country’s independence from France in 1962. They are demanding a new generation of leaders for the North African country.