Algerian presidential election date announced day after President Bouteflika returns home from hospital

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika decreed on Friday that presidential elections will be held in April.

Bouteflika signed the Presidential Decree, authorized by Article 133 of the Organic Law on the Electoral System, that sets April 17 as the date for the "convening of the electorate."

The announcement comes a day after the 76-year-old Bouteflika returned to Algiers from Paris, where he received a routine medical check-up that revealed "a marked improvement" in the president's health.

Bouteflika has been president of Algeria since 1999. He has suffered from ill health for years and was hospitalized in Paris for four months in 2013. Although nominated to run again for president, he has not yet accepted the nomination.

[Algeria Press Service]