Ali Benflis Announces His Withdrawal From The Presidential Race

Head of Talai el Houryat party (primacy of freedoms) Ali Benflis announced, on Sunday evening, his official withdrawal from the presidential race because he said conditions do not allow him to participate in the elections.

“The current political conditions do not allow me to participate in the upcoming presidential elections. The current situation requires listening to the people”, Ben Flis said at a press conference following an emergency meeting of his Political Bureau.

The decision of Benflis came after the withdrawal of Ghani Mehdi from the race on the pretext of “not completing the file of his candidacy”, while the movement of the Society for Peace earlier required in its participation not to run for the elections of President of the Republic for a fifth term.

The list of candidates for the Constitutional Council was limited to Ali Ghadiri, Abdelkader Ben Gurina, Abdelaziz Belaid, Rachid Nekkaz and other potential candidates.

On Sunday evening, eight trucks containing the forms for signatures of the President of the Republic arrived at the headquarters of the Constitutional Council, at a time when the director of his campaign, Abdelghani Zaalane, is expected to file his candidacy.

This step is an indication of the continuation of the fifth term project despite the wave of protests against it in recent days and the latest was on Sunday morning by the university students.

Earlier in the day, Swiss newspapers confirmed that the president was still at Geneva University Hospital, and there was no exact date for his return.