DHAKA: Thousands of Algerian opposition supporters have called for a boycott of next month’s presidential election, during an unprecedented mass rally.

Islamist and secular opposition parties at the rally denounced 77-year-old president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s attempt to win a fourth term of office.

They say a stroke last year has left him unfit to govern.

Bouteflika, in power since 1999, scrapped constitutional rules in 2008 limiting him to two terms in office.

He has rarely been seen in public in recent months, but correspondents say the backing of the governing National Liberation Front (FLN), army factions and business elites almost guarantees him election victory.

Chanting ‘boycott’ and ‘the people want the regime out’ about 5,000 people packed into the sports stadium where various opposition leaders denounced Bouteflika’s re-election bid and demanded reforms to a political system they see as corrupt, reports the BBC.

BDST: 1247 HRS, MAR 22, 2014