Algeria's Bouteflika Offers 'Democracy' if Re-Elected as Campaigning Begins

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's campaign chief promised on Sunday that constitutional changes would create a "broad democracy" if the ailing incumbent wins re-election next month.

Former prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal gave scant details of the long-promised changes as he opened the re-election campaign with a speech in the southern desert town of Adrar.

Sellal was one of six senior regime figures who fanned out across the vast North African country to campaign on behalf of the president, who is too sick to take to the hustings himself.

Bouteflika's decision to seek a fourth term despite a mini-stroke, which confined him to hospital in Paris for three months last year, has drawn heavy criticism not only in opposition ranks but also from some within the regime.

Former president Liamine Zeroual has slammed the 2008 constitutional amendment that allowed Bouteflika to seek and win a third term and demanded a handover of power.

Sellal told the rally in Adrar that the constitutional changes, first promised in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region in 2011, would be adopted this year.

"Algeria will have a broad democracy, a participatory democracy. Every citizen will take part in the country's development," said Sellal, who stepped down as prime minister to run Bouteflika's re-election campaign.

"We are going to expand the rights of the people's elected representatives and the opposition parties will have their constitutional rights," he told a crowd of about 1,000 people.

Sellal gave no further details of the proposed changes, a draft of which he handed to Bouteflika in September last year.

Press reports had suggested that the changes might create a post of vice president but that was denied by Sellal on Friday.

The former premier, who was closely involved in the 2004 and 2009 campaigns that returned Bouteflika to power, insisted earlier this month that the president need not be on the road himself to campaign for re-election.

Campaigning for Algeria's April 17 presidential election began Sunday as criticism mounted of a bid by Bouteflika to clinch a fourth term despite concerns over his health.

The president rejected such concerns in a message to the nation Saturday, insisting he was fit to govern and had decided to run in answer to persistent calls from Algerians.

"It is my duty to respond positively, because never in my life have I shied away from the call of duty," he said.

"The difficulties linked to my health do not appear to disqualify me in your eyes or plead in favor of me giving up the heavy responsibilities which have, in part, affected my health," APS news agency quoted him as saying.

He will square off against five other presidential hopefuls, including one woman, Louisa Hanoune, and key challenger Ali Benflis, and is widely expected to win.

Former prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal, who quit to become Bouteflika's campaign manager, said earlier this month that the president need not be on the road and would be represented by his aides.

Sellal was closely involved in the 2004 and 2009 campaigns that returned the president to power, and he himself has traveled across Algeria in past months to play up Bouteflika's track record.

That record has come under heavy criticism in Algeria, where politicians, the military and civil society groups have expressed opposition to Bouteflika's re-election.

The opposition says his rule has been dogged by corruption, while protests and calls for the fall of the government have multiplied.

Former president Liamine Zeroual has joined the chorus of dissent and slammed the 2008 amended constitution that allowed Bouteflika to win a third term.

In remarks published by the press, Zeroual said he had a "moral obligation" to speak out and demanded "a handover of power".

On Friday, thousands attended a meeting convened to urge a boycott of the vote, and dozens of people demonstrated the next day to call for the fall of the government.

Anger has mounted since Bouteflika, frail looking and his voice barely audible, was seen on state television on March 3 formally announcing that he was seeking a fourth term.

It was the first time he had spoken in public in two years. Since returning home from hospital in Paris, the president has chaired just two cabinet meetings and only rarely appeared in public.

His key challenger Benflis, 69, is a defender of human rights and former prime minister who was sidelined from politics after running against him in 2004.

Benflis has urged Algerians to vote in large number and make their voices heard to combat what many in the opposition believe are going to be rigged polls.

Like Benflis and Hanoune, candidates Moussa Touati and Ali Fawzi Rebaine ran in previous presidential races.

Hanoune, 60, heads the leftist Workers Party and was arrested twice in the 1980s when she worked for a clandestine workers' group.

Touati, 60, set up the Algerian National Front in 1999 and is a former soldier who was trained in Syria and in Libya.

An optician by trade, 59-year-old Rebaine was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of undermining state security and membership of an illegal association. He was freed under a presidential pardon two years later.

The election is a first for Abdelaziz Belaid, 50. The youngest of the six candidates, he has headed the opposition El-Moustakbel Front since 2012.

Six other hopefuls were rejected by the electoral commission while dozens of opposition figures dropped out of the race, expecting fraud.

Supporters of Bouteflika, who helped end Algeria's devastating civil war in the 1990s, say the president represents stability.

In his message Saturday Bouteflika said he decided to stand in the election in response to overwhelming calls from his supporters.

"It would grieve me to ignore your calls and that is why I decided, so as not to disappoint you, to stand in the presidential election and turn all my energy towards meeting your desires," he said

Campaigning ends on April 13.