This archive report was first published on 25 October 2019.
On the eve of a deadline for presidential candidates to register, thousands of Algerians took to the streets in a massive protest against the upcoming presidential election.
The Hirak protest movement, which was formed in February to demand that former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resign instead of running for a fifth term, has now entered its ninth month.
"It is a real showdown," said Said Salhi of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, as protesters continued to demand regime change and sweeping reforms in the oil-rich country.
Activists are demanding that Bouteflika-era figures still in power must not use the presidential poll as an opportunity to appoint his successor, and that transitional institutions should replace Algeria's entire system of government, which has been in place since independence from France in 1962.
Authorities have rejected these demands, but protests continue, with one sign carried by a protester in Algiers reading: "There will be no vote," accompanied by a drawing showing powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah and interim president Abdelkader Bensalah being booted into "the dustbin of history".
Initially polls had been planned for July 4, but they were postponed due to a lack of viable candidates, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis, since Bensalah's mandate expired that month.
So far, two presidential hopefuls -- both considered close to the regime -- have registered to run in the race, including Azzedine Mihoubi, leader of the Democratic National Rally party (RND), and a minister of culture in three governments under Bouteflika.
Algerians have meanwhile been angered by remarks made by Bensalah and broadcast by the RT television network, in which he "reassured" Russian President Vladimir Putin that the situation in Algeria "is under control".
