President Bouteflika renewed his confidence in Sellal for these reasons

As widely expected, President Abdellaziz Bouteflika has renewed his confidence in his election campaign manager Abdelmalek Sellal by appointing him once again prime minister, a few hours after taking the oath of office on Monday morning at the palace of the nations on the western coast of Algiers in the presence of state officials, government members, political and historical figures in addition to the members of the foreign diplomatic corps accredited to Algeria.

The swearing-in ceremony was however boycotted by three candidates of the April 17 presidential elections and several opposition party leaders.

 President Bouteflika knowing that Abdelmalek Sellal is one his most loyal allies wanted to show him gratitude for spearheading his own election campaign as Bouteflika was unable to go on the campaign trail himself on account of his questionable health condition resulting from a mini-stroke last year which compelled him to spend three months for treatment in a Paris hospital.

Mr. Sellal had already occupied the premiership position from September 2012 to March 2014.

The head of State, regarded as the architect of national reconciliation after a decade of a national tragedy spawned by the hideous scourge of terrorism in the 90’s, intends to continue this work.

Mr Sellal is a man of confidence of president Bouteflika. He has already led his election campaigns ahead of the 2004 and 2009 presidential polls also won by Bouteflika.

Before being appointed Mr. Bouteflika’s campaign manager, Mr. Sellal had toured for nearly 15 months the 48 provinces in the country to defend and expound the program of the president and, if necessary, try to defuse explosive situations here and there, sometimes by injecting local budgetary bonuses for the sake of social peace.

Since the arrival of Mr. Bouteflika to power in 1999, Sellal has been the only Prime Minister to have communicated on “sensitive” topics such as the health of the president and occupied the national media arena

Known for its franc talk and his sense of humor, this man with the strong and imposing stature was born in August 1948 in Constantine (430 km to the East of Algiers). Member of any political party, Mr. Sellal has always exercised high office.