ALGERIA
A Win, of Sorts
Algerian legislators elected an opposition leader chairman of Parliament on Wednesday in a bid to appease protesters who continue to demand more significant changes following the resignation of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April.
The Parliament chose Slimane Chenine of the Movement of National Construction party to replace former chairman Moad Bouchareb, who resigned last week, Reuters reported. Bouchareb hails from the same party as Bouteflika, the National Liberation Front (FLN), which has ruled Algeria since it won independence from France in 1962.
Chenine, 47, is the youngest lawmaker to be elected as head of the National Assembly, the agency noted. His clout will also be limited, considering his party has only 15 Parliamentary seats out of the total 462 – the FLN and its coalition partners enjoy an overwhelming majority.
In a separate development, the country’s supreme court ordered former industry minister Youcef Yousfi taken into custody over alleged corruption – the latest in a string of such detentions since Bouteflika’s resignation.
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