Protest against Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for 5th term, Campaign manager threatens shooting

Police are deploying around Algeria's presidential headquarters and parliament ahead of a new demonstration against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term.

The social media-driven protest movement is urging demonstrators to stay peaceful at Friday's protest, which is set to begin after midday Muslim prayer services.

Such protests are unusual in Algeria, where questions are growing about Bouteflika's fitness for office after a 2013 stroke that has left him largely hidden from the public.

Riot police vans have lined the boulevard leading to the presidential headquarters Friday. Protest organizers issued an appeal for demonstrators to stay 2 meters away from police cordons, to bring families and to clean up after the march.

It's the latest of several protests in recent days against Bouteflika's candidacy for the April 18 election. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's campaign manager has threatened to shoot demonstrators who have come out against the leader's plans to run for a fifth term, leaked footage has shown, as reported by Middle East Monitor.

Abdelmalek Sellal can be heard in the audio recording talking to the President of the Algerian Business Leaders' Forum Ali Haddad. "The intelligence agency is afraid that the demonstrations will spread into the country," Haddad warns, but Sellal assures him that "they will not go there and will not spread."

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