Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announces reelection campaign

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune says he is running for a second term. The 78-year-old political veteran said in an interview on Thursday that he would run in the gas-rich North African country’s Sept. 7 election after he avoided declaring his plans for months. Tebboune won his first term — with the military’s tacit support — in 2019, after pro-democracy street protests pressured the country’s ailing octogenarian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to resign. His reelection would entrench the power of Algeria’s political and military elite and further distance the country from the aspirations of the pro-democracy protestors that led to his predecessor’s ouster.