Anyone seen this man?IT SOUNDS like a missing-person notice: 78-year-old man, wheelchair-bound, not seen in public for over two years. But this is a description of Algeria’s president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose ill health, including two strokes in recent years, has led to rumours of a palace coup.
Mr Bouteflika can hardly speak and is said to communicate by letter with his ministers, who nevertheless insist that the old man is compos mentis and in charge. But several close associates of the president aren’t buying it. Having not seen Mr Bouteflika for over a year, they have demanded a meeting with him—so far to no avail. Missing person is right, they say.
Algerian politics is nothing if not murky. For decades a cabal of unelected power brokers has run the show. Known as le pouvoir (the power), the shadowy clique is composed of members of the economic, political and military elite. But with Mr Bouteflika’s health in decline, there appears to be a struggle within the group over who will succeed him.
The divide has manifested itself in changes to the...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1T08t3l
EmoticonEmoticon