President of Algeria

President of Algeria
رئيس الجمهورية الجزائرية

Presidential Standard
Incumbent
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
since 27 April 1999
Residence El Mouradia
Appointer The Electorate
Term length 5 years, renewable indefinitely
Inaugural holder Ahmed Ben Bella
Formation 15 September 1963
Website Official Webpage
Algeria
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Algeria
Foreign relations

The President of Algeria is the head of state and chief executive of Algeria, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Algerian People's National Armed Forces.

History of the office

The Tripoli Program, which served as Algeria's constitution when it won its war for independence from France in 1962, established the President as the head of state with a Prime Minister assisting in the operation of government. Internal political maneuvering resulted in a new constitution in 1963 that abolished the Prime Minister position and devolved all executive power upon the office of the President. For the first four decades of independence government was controlled as a one-party state by the National Liberation Front or FLN. The presidency was held by a succession of FLN members; Ahmed Ben Bella, Houari Boumédienne and Chadli Bendjedid. The constitution written in 1976 maintained the executive power of the Presidency, but the modifications of 1979 stripped the head of government status from the office.

Towards the end of the 1980s there was a liberalization of the FLN regime. However, when the Islamic Salvation Front won parliamentary elections in 1991, the military forced Chadli Bendjedid to dissolve the parliament and resign on 11 January 1992. The military declared a state of emergency and took over government of the country, establishing a five-member High Council of State. The council appointed a President, Muhammad Boudiaf, to take office for a three-year term to facilitate a transfer back to normal elections for the office. However Boudiaf was assassinated, and succeeded by Ali Kafi. Meanwhile the country descended into a period of civil war, between the military government and Islamic guerrillas. Kafi was replaced in 1994 by Liamine Zéroual, who called the first of these elections in 1995, winning the full five-year term easily in disputed in election as the civil war was continuing. He called another early election in 1999, with the Islamic insurgency mostly suppressed. Abdelaziz Bouteflika won this election after all other candidates dropped out. He won re-election on 8 April 2004, in elections that were also disputed, won again in 2009, relatively unchallenged, and 2014; his term ends in 2019.

List of Presidents of Algeria, 1962–present

Latest election

Candidate Party Votes %
Abdelaziz BouteflikaNational Liberation Front8,332,59881.53
Ali BenflisIndependent1,244,91812.18
Abdelaziz BelaidFront for the Future343,6243.36
Louisa HanouneWorkers' Party140,2531.37
Ali Fawzi RebaineAhd 54101,0460.99
Moussa TouatiAlgerian National Front57,5900.56
Invalid/blank votes1,087,449–
Total11,307,478100
Registered voters/turnout21,871,39351.70
Source: Interior Ministry

Living former Presidents

There are one living former Algerian President and one living acting president:

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.