Rabat – The president of the Constitutional Council of Algeria, Mourad Medelci, 76, died early on Monday after battling illness.
Algerian media announced that Medelci will buried this afternoon at the Ben Aknoun Cemetery in Algiers.
Medelci’s death comes at a critical time for Algeria. Algeria will hold presidential elections on April 18. As head of the Constitutional Council, which monitors and supervises presidential elections, Medelci had a central role.
He had served as the Constitutional Council’s president since 2013.
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Medelci earned a master’s degree in economic studies from at the University of Algiers in 1968 and later worked in both the private and public sectors. He became secretary-general of the Ministry of Trade in 1980.
Medelci was the minister of trade from 1988 to 1989 and deputy minister for the budget from 1990 to 1991.
In 1999, Algeria’s now-81-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika reappointed him as trade minister, a post he held until 2001. From 2001 to 2002, Medelci was minister of finance.
Medelci was also Bouteflika’s adviser from 2002 to 2005.
Bouteflika, president of Algeria since 1999, will be running for his fifth term as president in the upcoming elections.
