ALGIERS: Algerian protestors are due to hold a new anti government rally Saturday in the heart of the capital, a week after 2,000 demonstrators braved 30,000 riot police at the same venue.
On Friday, police were already out in force around May 1 Square, the site of last week's rally and where the next one is set to begin.
Both have been organized by National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD), a month old umbrella group made up of the political opposition, the Algerian human rights league and trade unions.
Another anti-government protest is scheduled to start an hour earlier in the Mediterranean city of Oran, where contrary to a week ago local officials changed course and authorised it.
Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said Algerian authorities did not receive a formal request to authorise the protest in Algiers, where demonstrations have long been banned.
"To my knowledge there was no request to march," Medelci said, speaking in Madrid.
"Perhaps there was a will to do so but we are an administration which functions in a transparent manner and we respond when we are solicited."
Meanwhile, posters against the demonstration sprouted on the walls of the capital on Friday night.
"Don't march on my tranquility and my freedom," one said.
Another, unsigned, appealed to residents of May 1 Square to fly an Algerian flag from their balconies "as a sign of love for their country."
A group of youngsters there said they were clueless about the possible author.
"It's certainly the people in power," one said.
Algerian demonstrators have been emboldened by fellow anti government protesters in neighbouring Tunisia and in Egypt that ousted the leaders of both north African countries.
Criticism of the government has widened to include a senior former leader of the Algerian regime, Abdelhamid Mehri, who called for sweeping political changes in the north African country in an open letter to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Thursday.
Mehri, a onetime secretary general of the ruling National Liberation Front and government minister, accused the regime of being "incapable of solving the thorny problems of our country...and even less so of preparing efficiently for the challenges of the future, which are even more arduous and serious."
The CNCD wants the immediate end of Bouteflika's regime, citing the same problems of high unemployment, housing and soaring costs that inspired the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
Those grievances also triggered early January riots in Algeria that left five dead and more than 800 injured.
A protest called by the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) in Algiers on January 22 also left many injured as police blocked a march on parliament.
Like their counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt, the protesters have used Facebook and text messages to spread their call for change.
For its part, the Algerian government has recently announced a series of conciliatory measures including lifting the country's 19-year state of emergency by the end of February.
Bouteflika has also called on state owned broadcasting companies to offer coverage of officially authorised political parties and organisations a key demand of the opposition and acted to curb price rises.
But the CNCD says these steps are not enough.
In power since 1999, Bouteflika, who turns 74 next month, was reelected in 2004 and again in 2009 after revising the constitution to allow for an indefinite number of terms.
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