Algerians do not disarm. On the eve of the expiry of the deadline for the submission of candidates for the presidential election on December 12, they massively demonstrated Friday, October 25 against the power, spurred by polemical remarks of the acting head of state.

The streets of central Algiers were crowded for this 36th consecutive Friday of protest against the "system" in power since the independence of Algeria in 1962 and against the presidential election to elect a successor to Abdelaziz Bouteflika, pushed to the resignation on April 2 by the demonstrations. "There will be no vote," proclaimed a sign carried by a protester.

"Dustbin of History"

Drawn on the sign, a boot depicting the people sends the chief of staff of the army, General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, strongman of the country since the departure of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to join the acting president Abdelkader Bensalah and the Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui in a "dustbin of history".

"There are many people in the streets of Algiers", with "always the same determination," said Said Salhi, vice president of the Algerian League of Human Rights (LADDH), present in the Algerian procession, which dispersed in the calm at the end of the afternoon.

Entered Tuesday in its ninth month, the Hirak "gets stronger as we approach the presidential election," he told AFP.

Henceforth, according to him, "a real tussle" is engaged between the power, which intends to put an end to the crisis with the vote of December 12, and the popular movement which refuses that Abdelkader Bensalah, General Gaïd Salah and Nourredine Bedoui , former faithful of Bouteflika, organize elections.

Candidates of the "system"

In the absence of candidates, the government had had to cancel the previous presidential election, scheduled for July 4 to close the three months of constitutional interim Abdelkader Bensalah.

This time, two candidates from the "system" have already submitted their case to the Independent National Electoral Authority (ANIE), a new body supposed to guarantee the transparency and fairness of the ballot.

And five other candidates have made an appointment with Anie by the end of the deadline for applications, which expires Saturday at midnight (23 pm GMT), according to the institution.

Former Minister Abdelkader Bouteflika, Azzedine Mihoubi was the first on Wednesday to submit his candidacy on behalf of the National Democratic Rally (RND), which was one of the main supporters of the head of state until its fall.

Mr. Mihoubi took over the RND after the incarceration of the very unpopular Ahmed Ouyahia, three times prime minister of Abdelkader Bouteflika and targeted by investigations for alleged corruption.

Islamist Abdelkader Bengrina, a former minister, submitted his candidacy the next day, on behalf of El-Bina. This small party is a member of an Islamist coalition, one of whose members was elected in September to the presidency of the National Assembly, thanks to the voices of Mr. Bouteflika's RND and the National Liberation Front (FLN), holders of the absolute majority.

"Humiliation"

On Friday, protesters traded the usual target of their slogans - the ubiquitous general Gaid Salah - by the obliterated Abdelkader Bensalah.

Broadcasted by the channel RT (formerly Russia Today), his statements Thursday to President Vladimir Putin, which he "wishes to reassure" about the situation "under control" in Algeria and which minimize the scale of the dispute, have ignited the Algerian social networks and the "Hirak".

"Bensalah's remarks to Putin were felt as a humiliation of the people and Algeria," said Said Salhi of LADDH.

Already in February, at the beginning of the Hirak, the demonstrators claimed to have been pushed into the street by the "humiliation" felt at the stubbornness of Bouteflika, an octogenarian weakened by the disease, to represent himself after already 20 years spent power.

Friday, processions have also brought together, without incident, large crowds in several other cities in the country, according to the testimonies and images posted on social networks.

As in Algiers, the protesters also called for the release of hundreds of "opinion prisoners", protesters, activists or journalists, jailed since June for events related to "Hirak".

Arrested Wednesday and Thursday respectively, the editor of a local daily, Mustapha Bendjama, and an LADDH activist, Kadour Chouicha, were released Thursday.

With AFP