Algeria Protests: Military Position

Protests are currently ongoing in Algeria. The protests revolve around demands for their President, Adbelaziz Bouteflika, to resign and be replaced. He has been the president since 1999, two decades. He suffered a stroke in 2013 and has rarely been seen in public. He decided to run for a fifth term, which resulted in the protests.

As Al Jazeera wrote:

Despite his ailing health, Bouteflika continued enjoying the support of Algeria's powerbrokers, including the military, and went ahead to win presidential elections in 2014. 

So though I don't know anything about what is going on Algeria (as this is my first blog post ever on Algeria), I have to suspect that there is a high degree of corruption going on in the country.

It appears that the military in Algeria holds a large amount of power. Below I have various quotes from three articles.



Here's what Al Jazeera has to say:

The latest rallies came days after Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaid Salah, the powerful army chief, called for the application of a provision in the Algerian constitution that could remove the president on account of his failing health. Under Article 102, the Constitutional Council could decide that a sitting head of state is no longer capable of fully exercising their functions and ask Parliament that they be declared unfit to rule. 

This is kind of an interesting move since it would seem this move could have been done in 2013.

Another Al Jazeera article has this insight:

Dalia Ghanem Yazbeck, a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, told Al Jazeera the military has been sending "mixed messages" from the beginning of the demonstrations. "At first, it was 'we will not tolerate chaos', and then, 'we are with the voice of the people', and what Gaid Saleh said today was confirmation that the military has taken a strong stance in the political arena," she said from Algiers, the country's capital. "What he said today confirms that the Algerian military has been, and will remain the devoted guardians of Algeria's power," Yazbeck said.

Reuters adds:

The ideal scenario for the army, former generals say, would be a compromise candidate for president who would meet some demands of the protesters while enabling the generals to help shape the future.

“I can imagine more concessions from the army, including accepting candidates from the demonstrators to handle the transition,” said a retired military intelligence officer.

The army has stayed on the sidelines, in sharp contrast to early 1990s when bearded Islamists alarmed the generals with radical rallies.

Here's what I'm reading into this: the Algerian military doesn't know how to deal with the protests though it feels it must. They probably weren't expecting these protests against the current president to occur and had no game plan. Though it is mentioned that Bouteflika fired many of the military leaders, I'd assume that those currently high up in the military are enjoying perks that they don't want to give up, which means they want the right person to replace the president. My bet is that they're looking for someone who will be acceptable both to the power brokers and the protestors. If that individual can't be found, I suspect there will be crackdowns on the protestors. Those are my first thoughts. I'll keep an eye on what is happening.