Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika arrived home from Geneva on Sunday, as students vowed to keep up mass demonstrations against his re-election bid and the ruling party scrambled for a way out of the crisis.
Bouteflika's decision to run for a fifth term has triggered seismic protests in the North African OPEC member, presenting the 82-year-old leader and ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party with their most serious challenge since his election in 1999.
His promises to amend the constitution and serve an abridged term if re-elected in the April 18 ballot have failed to satisfy protesters frustrated with "le pouvoir," a cabal of military officers, veterans of Algeria's war of independence and big businessmen who have governed the oil and gas producer for decades.