Former Algerian president dead at 84
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has died aged 84, declined the presidency of Algeria in 1992 and 1993 because he wanted power on his own terms; he got it in 1999, and in 2004 he became the first Algerian leader to be returned to office in a democratic vote in the 42 years since the departure of the country's French colonial rulers.
A veteran of Algeria's war for independence from France, Bouteflika served as the country's foreign minister for 16 years until 1979. His westernized style and powerful oratory marked him out from other leading figures of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) and led him to be called “the dandy diplomat”.
In 1965, Bouteflika had supported the coup that overthrew Ahmed Ben Bella and brought Houari Boumedienne to power. He became Boumedienne's closest confidant and second-incommand and, under their leadership, Algerian diplomacy reached its peak.
Bouteflika was tipped to succeed Boumedienne upon his death, but in 1979 the military intervened to appoint Colonel Chadli Bendjedid as head of state instead. In 1981, Bouteflika was expelled from the FLN on charges of embezzlement and two years later he went into self-imposed exile.
Though his reputation as a former grandee of the Boumedienne regime was a controversial one, Bouteflika's exile in the 1980s meant that he was not associated with “the black decade” of the Bendjedid years, nor with the abrupt termination of the country's “democratization” process in 1992, when the army pulled the plug on elections. During the early years of the brutal civil war which broke out following the aborted elections, the military elite offered Bouteflika the presidency three times. Bouteflika declined the presidency not because he opposed military rule, but because he wanted power on his own terms. His patience paid off; by 1999 political infighting had ensured that no one had the power base to challenge him
The circumstances of Bouteflika's election in April 1999 were murky in the extreme. The election itself was boycotted at the last minute, and thus devalued, by all six other candidates amid complaints of fraud, and Bouteflika was accused of being yet another puppet of the military.
Yet during the campaign he had been at pains to put a distance between himself and the top brass, and after becoming president he demonstrated unexpected flexibility and independence of mind.