Thursday December 12th 2019 will be a public holiday in Algeria to allow citizens to vote in the presidential election.
On April 2nd 2019, president Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned after nearly 20 years in power, following pressure from mass protests against a fifth term.
Since then Abdelkader Bensalah has been acting president.
Ahmed Gaid Salah, Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army, first announced that presidential elections were to be held on July 4th, but they were annulled due to a lack of candidates. The elections were rescheduled to take place on December 12th.
The five candidates in the elections are former senior government officials who were part of the regime of Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
