The question of a fifth term for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika continues to make the spotlight with the regime floundering in the uncertainty of how best to handle the presidential election which is scheduled for April 2019.

The latest problem for the Presidency and the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) leadership was triggered at the beginning of this week by Baha Eddine Tliba (a.k.a. Bahaeddine). Tliba is regarded in almost all Algerian political circles as a tactician and opportunist. He has a long record in the Annaba area of smuggling, property racketeering and a host of related unseemly business interests. Also, as we mentioned, he was at the heart — along with: his father-in-law Chief of Staff General Ahmed Gaïd Salah; brother-in-in-law Adel Gaïd Salah; and the FLN’s former secretary-general, Amar Saâdani — of the so-called Annaba clan. It came to prominence in the summer of 2016 for seemingly plotting against the Bouteflika clan in the context of maneuvering its own interests towards the 2019 presidential election. The local Annaba media described the Tliba – Gaïd Salah alliance as a property mafia and nicknamed Tliba as the ‘Emir of Qatar of Annaba’.

In the later months of 2017, Ould Abbes was telling all those willing to listen — although without actually saying so in so many words — that President Bouteflika would seek a fifth term and would be the FLN’s candidate. In the same context, it should be recalled that Bouteflika’s close friend, Mustapha Farouk Ksentini, talked openly to the media about Bouteflika’s readiness and desire for a fifth term.

Then, around the turn of the year and throughout January, Ould Abbess tried to play down the idea of a Bouteflika fifth term, saying instead that the FLN will announce its presidential candidate at the 19 March meeting of the party’s central committee.

At the beginning of this year Ould Abbess was beginning to backtrack or at least play down the idea of a fifth Bouteflika term. Meanwhile, Tliba was going in the other direction and defied Ould Abbes’ orders by telling the media that he — along with members of the central committee and many others in the party — are backing Bouteflika for a fifth term. In one press interview at the beginning of January, he said that he was convinced that his ‘brothers and sisters’ on the FLN Central Committee and in the national and local branches of the party would undoubtedly support the launch of an initiative for a fifth term.

The timing of events during this last week strongly suggests that Ould Abbes had got wind of Tliba’s intentions.

This is a segment from the weekly Algeria Politics & Security publication. For more information, or to receive a free sample, please contact us.