Algeria: Bouteflika to step down after new vote

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will hand over power to a democratically elected successor after a new constitution is approved and a national conference is held, Deputy Prime Minister Ramtane Lamamra said on Wednesday.

"The plan to get out of this situation, the plan which President Bouteflika presented on March 11, states that the president is committed not to run in any new election and that the collective, independent national conference is the one to fix the date of this election," he told a news conference in Berlin.

"Once this national conference happens ... and a new constitution is in place ... a presidential election will be held and by then the term of President Bouteflika will expire and the presidency will be handed over to the person elected by the Algerian people," Lamamra said.

SS