Ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 77, who suffered a stroke last year, has announced he will run again in elections next month. He apparently wants to die in office and the clique around him will not let him go

Egypt appears to be following the bloody path of Algeria in the early 1990s. The leaderless revolution of 2011 has been coopted by the military yet requires the demise of the terrorizing capitalist world system that encourages both military regimes and authoritarian populisms

Algerians are by nature anarchists. Whether at the level of local daily life or in periodic broader social movements, large numbers of grassroots Algerians over the past five decades have refused to accept the authoritarian and corrupt regime imposed since independence. That struggle continues.

While a large-majority boycott of the polls would no doubt be a strong symbol of the regime’s illegitimacy, it is not clear how this would add to what is felt by most within Algeria already.

The political situation in North Africa remains complex even after the events of the Arab Spring. David Porter attempts to draw lessons for the region from Algeria’s experience two decades ago.