Algeria's Bouteflika due to submit candidacy amid protests

ALGIERS, Algeria – Algeria's Constitutional Council has been placed under high security as President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term is due to be formally submitted.

Sunday is the deadline to present candidacies for the April 18 presidential election. It is unclear whether the 82-year-old Bouteflika would do it in person.

Tens of thousands of Algerians protested on Friday in the capital, Algiers, and other cities against Bouteflika's new bid, as questions grow about his fitness for office after a 2013 stroke left him largely out of public view.

Some on social media have called on protesters to take to the streets again on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the head of the moderate Islamist party MSP and a major opposition figure, Abderrazak Makri, says he will not be a candidate.