France on Wednesday called for "full transparency" in the Algerian elections scheduled for April 18 and expressed hope that elections would be held in the best possible circumstances.
"We have followed Bouteflika's decision to run in the next presidential election on April 18. We want to hold these elections in the best possible conditions and with complete transparency in the election campaigns," French government spokesman Benjamin Grevo said.
"Only the Algerian people can choose their leaders and their future, in the light of peace and security," he said, adding that Algeria is a "friend country" and an "important partner".
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is running for a fifth term and a 20-year extension, but mass protests have turned down.
He is expected to submit his candidacy for the Constitutional Council on March 3.
"The right to candidacy is constitutionally guaranteed to every Algerian citizen, and the right of the Mujahed Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run," said the campaign's former chief Abdelmalek Sallal. "It is the Algerian people and the fund that separates."
On Tuesday, thousands of students demonstrated in Algerian universities in different states and in the center of the capital against a fifth term for President Bouteflika.
The Algerian army chief of staff, General Ahmed Kayed Saleh, warned of what he called "suspicious calls" in his first comment on the demonstrations rejecting Bouteflika's candidacy, saying that the course "does not necessarily serve the supreme interest of Algeria, nor to achieve its prosperous future."