How the crippled head ruled Algeria for three

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is to rule Algeria for a fourth term on a wheelchair, marking a precedent in the country's history and adding to its destruction by the end of 2012 the record as the country's most powerful president since its independence in 1962.

Bouteflika appeared on a wheelchair on April 17, casting his ballot in a scene that aroused sarcastic comments by activists on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, who interacted with Hashtag, which was launched.

Opponents in the country say the man who amended the constitution in 2008 made the presidential mandates open after only two candidates wanted to stay in power for life.

The late Algerian President Houari Boumedienne (1965/1979) was more than one who remained in the presidency before Bouteflika, where he took office for 13 years, 6 months and 8 days before the latter broke the figure in November 2012.

Bouteflika began his first term in April 1999, was re-elected in 2004 for a second term, and in 2009 began his third term before winning a fourth term on Friday, according to results announced by Algerian Interior Minister Tayeb Belaiz, who said Bouteflika Ahmed On 81.53 of the votes of voters, pointing out that these results are preliminary pending the announcement of final results by the Constitutional Council.

For the 15 years he ruled, the Algerian president has resisted several political aftershocks he has overcome in a country that has just emerged from a serious security crisis that has left tens of thousands of victims, displaced and missing.

The man has also resisted health problems - although the disease has eased in recent months - and made this "seasoned politician," as described by his supporters and opponents, low-profile in front of him to end up in a wheelchair.

After returning to the country last July from a two-month treatment trip in France, Bouteflika continued to exercise his duties despite his health problems in the form of resolutions, letters and meetings with senior state officials and foreign guests on state television without appearing in physical activity requiring physical effort.

Bouteflika, born March 2, 1937, is a Algerian politician who has lived in most of the country since independence in 1962.

The man who has been leading Algeria since 1999 after winning four consecutive mandates, was the Minister of Youth and Sports in the first government after independence at the age of 25 years before he became the second man in the regime of the late President Houari Boumediene (1965/1979) The emergence of the star of Algeria in the international arena as a defender of the issues of emancipation and a new world economic order that justice the third world countries.

Bouteflika received a political setback after the death of Boumediene, one of the most important candidates to succeed him, but the Army Foundation stood up against his ambition and established former president Chazli Bennid as head of state.

It was a turning point in his political life when he left the country in 1980, and was his destination in the Arabian Gulf where he served as adviser to the late ruler of the UAE Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

At the end of the 1980s he tried to return to the political arena from the ruling National Liberation Front (NFL) gate, but entering the country in a political and security crisis after a clash between the Islamists and the regime made him leave the country in the early 1990s.

In the official biography of Bouteflika, published in the official website of the presidency, he rejected "the position of adviser to the Supreme Council of the State, a transitional presidential body established from 1992 to 1994 and then permanent representative of Algeria to the United Nations. , A period in which the country lived a constitutional vacuum after the assassination of the late President Mohamed Boudiaf in 1992, months after taking office.

Algerian politicians confirmed in their memoirs that Bouteflika, known for his "political leanings", refused to take over the presidency proposed by the military establishment after "rejecting the terms of its offer to gain powers in running the political and security crisis" in the country at the time.

In 1998, Bouteflika returned as a candidate for the presidency to replace Ayman Zeroual, who decided to resign in April 1999 in an election that left six of his rivals and accused the ruling power of "rigging it for candidate Abdelaziz Bouteflika."

But Bouteflika rejected the accusations, saying that "the withdrawal of his rivals is a political maneuver only not based on concrete evidence."

On his arrival, Bouteflika launched two major projects: the first for national reconciliation to resolve a security and political crisis that the country experienced during the 1990s, and was behind the thousands of armed militants from the mountains; the second was the return of the country, which was besieged by the crisis to the international arena.

"History and the Algerian people alone will judge the efforts made to restore social peace, economic growth and the return of Algeria to its natural position among nations," the president said.

The opposition regularly criticizes Bouteflika's rule and considers it "characterized by widespread corruption, restrictions on freedoms and ambiguity in the country's economic orientation."

The former Algerian foreign minister, Ahmed Talib Brahimi, who worked with Bouteflika in the 1970s, summarized the last sentence in a single sentence: "No one denies that the country has known achievements in the infrastructure and facilities, but in contrast has seen a great breakdown in morals and political practice" The spread of corruption and dilute the political arena.

In early 2012, Bouteflika launched a "package of reforms" that included election laws, parties, associations and media to counter the Arab Spring wave, which he described on several occasions as "imported democracy" and "what is said." He also considered Algeria an "exception" His "formative reforms to avoid the street revolution"