Algeria’s Bouteflika in Geneva for ‘periodic medical checks’

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is in Geneva for a routine medical checkup, the presidency said in a statement.

Aged 81, the wheelchair-bound president suffered a stroke in 2013 that has limited his public appearances to a handful of largely ceremonial occasions.

“His Excellency Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the Republic, left Algiers this Monday, August 27, 2018 to Geneva, Switzerland to perform periodic medical checks,” the statement carried by the official Algeria Press Service said. 

Bouteflika has made similar trips in the past, including the Val-de-Grace hospital in Paris where he has sought medical attention on several occasions.

Elected to office in 1999, the president’s supporters as well as executives from his National Liberation Front party have called on him to run for a fifth consecutive term in a presidential vote scheduled for 2019. 

He has yet to announce whether he will run for office.