ALGIERS 

Algeria's new deputy prime minister has hailed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s decision to refrain from seeking a fifth term in office, describing the move as “historic”.

Speaking to the Monte Carlo Doualiya radio station on Tuesday, Ramtan Lamamra said: “President Bouteflika has made a historic decision; I hope the Algerian people will be comforted by it.”

Late Monday, Bouteflika announced that presidential polls slated for April would be postponed to a later date, yet to be decided.

He also announced his decision to withdraw his candidacy from the election.

The announcement followed several weeks of popular demonstrations against the president’s stated intention to run for a fifth term in office.

“This is the most important development since Algeria secured its independence in 1962,” Lamamra said of Bouteflika’s decision.

Lamamra, who also now holds the post of foreign minister, went on to assert: “The elections will be free; they will be overseen by an independent committee, members of which will be appointed later.”

He added: “As soon as the new government is ready, we will open dialogue with Algerian youth -- and other political forces -- at a national conference, where we can decide on a date for the election.”

According to Lamamra, delegates at the planned national conference “will then help draft a new constitution for a second republic and a new political system”.

Algerian opposition parties, he stressed, would also have a voice at the conference “since the country needs feedback from everyone”.

Last month, Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front nominated the 82-year-old Bouteflika -- who has ruled Algeria since 1999 -- to run for a fifth term in office.

The move sparked three weeks of protests in several parts of the country, including capital Algiers, against Bouteflika’s hope of securing a fifth presidential term.

Opposition figures had consistently urged the aging president, who in 2013 underwent treatment for a blood clot in the brain, to refrain from contesting the April poll.

Writing by Ali H. M.Abo Rezeg