Algeria’s former President Chadli Bendjedid, the “father” of the country’s multiparty system, was buried at the El-Alia cemetery in Algiers on Monday after a funeral attended by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and other senior officials amid a large crowd of mourners.
One of Algeria’s longest-serving presidents, Chadli Bendjedid died on Friday aged 83.
Ministers from other Arab countries were among those who paid their respects, including Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslam, his Moroccan counterpart Saad Eddine El Otmani and Egypt’s minister for religious affairs, Talaat Salem.
Bouteflika recited the Al Fatiha (first chapter of the Holy Qur’an) and signed the condolence book at the People’s Palace in Algiers where the body of Algeria’s third president, draped in the national flag, was resting.
Bouteflika had declared a national mourning period of eight days from Saturday.
Otmani described Bendjedid as “a president known for his faith in the united Arab Maghreb Union.”
Thousands of Algerians lined the route of the funeral procession, and women ululated as the coffin draped in the national flag was transported by a military vehicle from the presidential palace to the cemetery on the eastern outskirts of Algiers.
He was buried in El-Alia cemetery in Martyrs’ Square, the final resting place of other former Algerian presidents Houari Boumedienne, Ahmed Ben Bella and Mohamed Boudiaf.
Late Chadli Bendjedid, who ruled from 1979 to 1992, is credited with introducing multiparty politics to Algeria, where the single-party rule of the National Liberation Front ended in 1989 after bloody unrest over demands for democracy.
The promulgation of a pluralist constitution in February that year kick-started the democratisation process of government institutions in Algeria.
