President Abdelmadjid Tebboune issued a decree setting June 12 for early legislative elections, after dissolving parliament last month.
Thousands demonstrated in Algiers, rejecting the early legislative elections announced the day before, as weekly rallies by the resurgent Hirak pro-democracy movement gain momentum.
Protesters defied a coronavirus-related ban on gatherings to rally from different parts of the capital, converging on the central post office, the Hirak movement’s emblematic rallying point.
Demonstrators shouted slogans including “No elections with mafia gangs” and “a civil not a military state”, a key Hirak slogan.
The Hirak movement broke out in February 2019 in outrage at then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term in office.
The ailing strongman was forced to step down weeks later, but the movement continued with demonstrations, demanding a sweeping overhaul of a ruling system in place since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962.
Since its second anniversary on February 22, the Hirak has restarted weekly Friday protests, suspended for almost a year due to the pandemic.
