This archive report was first published on 9 December 2019.
Algeria's contentious presidential election campaign is highlighting the deep gulf between young people and an ageing elite they see as clinging to power.
The poll, set for Thursday, will see five candidates, all linked to the 82-year-old deposed president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, compete for the top office.
But the protesters, whose mass mobilisation forced the ex-strongman to resign in April, have rallied weekly to demand that sweeping reforms must come ahead of any vote.
"It's not a gap between the fossils in power and the youth, it's a yawning chasm," said Lyes, a 22-year-old geology student at a student march in Algiers.
While more than half of Algeria's population is under 30, the country's leaders are geriatric, with the powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah, 79, and interim president Abdelkader Bensalah, 78.
"The dinosaurs who have held power since independence made us disgusted with politics," said Lyes.
Young people only became interested in politics with the eruption of the 'Hirak' protest movement in February, and most of his peers are not even enrolled to vote.
For nine months, they have marched every Tuesday to demand change, waving national colours and flags calling for a free and democratic Algeria.
Algeria's leaders have created few jobs, stifled free speech, upheld conservative traditions, and turned a blind eye to police oppression, the young protesters told AFP.
"Before we were afraid to speak out but things have changed since Hirak," said Hanya Assala Abdedaim, a 24-year-old student.
"The transition in Algeria isn't only a political transition, it's also a generational transition," said Algerian sociologist Nacer Djabi.
