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In Algeria, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term in the April 18 presidential vote has caused outrage. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets for three consecutive days in Algiers to denounce the President’s third term.
During these protests that were met with a significance police presence, Algerians chanted slogans, referring to the President’s health condition. They have also re-discovered the fact that their current President was born in Morocco.
"Bouteflika, le Marocain, il n'y aura pas de 5e mandat". Des supporters du CRB jeudi dans le métro d'Alger. pic.twitter.com/o5cJ0lgTxt
— Hamdi (@HamdiBaala) 16 février 2019
During these manifestations in Algiers, protesters chanted : «Bouteflika ya el Marroki makache ohda 5» (Bouteflika the Moroccan, there will be no 5th term), reports Algerian daily ElWatan.
Several videos were shared on social media, showing Algerian protesters chanting against 81-year-old President, referring to his «Moroccan origins».
On the other hand, Kabyle newspapers Tamurt commented on the slogans chanted by protesters in Algeria. The same source protested against «the unexplained racism against Moroccans». «For more than ten days, Algerians have been denigrating Moroccans in the streets and no one denounced these serious, racist and xenophobic chants», wrote the Algerian newspaper.
Born in Morocco and raised in Oujda
For the record, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born on the 2nd of March 1937 in Oujda, Morocco. He lived with his parents and siblings for years, in the city, before joining the Algerian Liberation Army. Bouteflika’s continued his studies in Oujda until high school, as other Algerians who found refuge in Morocco because of the French colonization.
The Bouteflika’s family owns three houses in the Moroccan city. One of these properties will be soon demolished after it was abandoned for years. Abdelaziz Bouteflika was raised in a house, located in Oujda's ancient Medina, before his family decided to move to the one in question.
Morocco has been linked to the protests in Algeria in a different way. On February the 22nd, protesters massively took to the streets, in Algiers, where they got inspired by a song sung by Moroccan football fans.
Indeed, during their marches, protesters chanted slogans hostile to the current president, taking up the well-known Casablanca-based Raja football club fan song «Fe bladi delmouni» (Oppressed in my own country), as a call for freedom and a hymn against social and political injustice.
For the record, the 2019 Algerian presidential elections will be held during an intense climate, as more and more opponents of Bouteflika are expressing themselves against his candidacy, which could eventually lead him for a fifth time in a row as head of state.
