![President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika casts his ballot to elect members of the country’s 462-seat parliament in Algiers on May 4, 2017 [Bechir Ramzy/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/d2.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017_05_04-President-of-Algeria-Abdelaziz-Bouteflika-casts-his-ballot-to-elect-members-of-the-country%E2%80%99s-462-seat-parliament-in-Algiers20170504_2_23460266_21711473-e1549962030312.jpg?fit=920%2C661&ssl=1)
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is to appoint a vice president to assist him in ruling the country, citing his ailing health as motivation.
A well-informed source said that Bouteflika – who announced his candidacy for a fifth term as president on Sunday – has decided to create a position of a vice president to help him in the presidency and the ruling of the country because he no longer has the physical strength to do so alone.
Eighty-one-year-old Bouteflika has been ruling Algeria since 1999 but has rarely appeared in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013 which left him wheelchair-bound. He is likely to win a fifth term in Algeria’s presidential elections which will be held on 18 April.
Algeria Press Service said that Bouteflika intends to amend the constitution in case he is re-elected. The agency nevertheless didn’t specify the items he would seek to amend.
However, Reuters quoted a well-informed source as saying that Bouteflika will probably propose the creation of the position of vice president to help him rule the country.
READ: Algeria’s ruling FLN picks Bouteflika as presidential candidate, for a 5th term