Now you see him. Now you don't. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika falls out of sight for weeks at a time, and was notably silent when suicide bombs tore through two important buildings in Algiers, one housing UN offices. That rang alarm bells about his health and questions about his political plans for a country he has sought to stabilize.
Is the 70-year-old Bouteflika, who has been treated for a stomach ailment, still sick? Or is this a strategy to prolong his presidency? Or is it something more cryptic?
Such enigmatic disappearing acts apparently add to Bouteflika's charisma. A powerful faction within Algeria's political elite is clamoring for him to run for a third term in 2009 -- an issue that even the stunning Dec. 11 bombings and their 37 victims could not knock out of the news.
Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni suggested a link between the two. A day after the attacks, he told Chaine 1 radio there was a "probable" tie between the bombings -- claimed by al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa -- and the debate over a third term for Bouteflika, a firm US ally in the war on terror.
The minister pointed to the bombing of the Constitutional Council, which validates any changes to the Constitution that would be needed for Bouteflika to seek a third term.
Between the murky world of Algerian politics, where powerful clans hold sway, and the nebulous realm of terrorism, nothing seems excluded.
"By not reacting to the attacks, the head of state accentuated the sense of abandon of the population," the daily El Watan said. "They don't understand that security comes second to the `third presidential mandate.'"
The growing anxiety over whether Bouteflika, in office since 1999, could extend his mandate reflects the uncertainties gripping this gas-rich North African nation. It is trying to overcome 15 years of terrorism, modernize its state-centered economy and feed and house its growing population -- all without upsetting the special interests within the power structure.
"The big uncertainty here now is not a third mandate but who would take over after" Bouteflika, said Robert Parks, director of the research center in the western city of Oran for the American Institute for Maghreb Studies.
"He's brought stability, he has diminished terrorism, he has reinserted Algeria into the international diplomatic arena," Parks said by telephone. "And Algeria is much richer today than in 1999," when Bouteflika took office.
The country gasped when Bouteflika narrowly escaped a Sept. 6 bomb attack in the eastern city of Batna that killed at least 22 people waiting to see the visiting president. The press says the president, who arrived late, was the target.
The incident raised the level of concern about who could replace him with few potential candidates around. Among names floated are former prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia or another former prime minister known as a reformist, Mouloud Hamrouche.
For nearly four decades after Algeria won independence from France in a brutal war, army generals called the shots, directly or from off-stage.
Except for Algeria's first president in 1962, Ahmed Ben Bella, appointed and then ousted by the army, Bouteflika has been the country's only civilian leader.
He is a proven political survivor who has made no secret of his wish to change the Constitution to allow for a "strong presidency," and a third term. The president is currently limited to two five-year terms.
The leading party in the governing coalition, the National Liberation Front, or FLN, has pushed for months for a constitutional change. With Bouteflika its president and Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem its secretary general, the FLN -- the sole party for nearly 30 years, until 1989 -- is well-placed to get its way.
But health issues raise some questions.
Bouteflika was rushed to France in 2005 with what was said to be a bleeding ulcer. But doubts were raised about the real nature of his illness with observers, including doctors, concluding that he may suffer from stomach cancer.
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