text: This change enabled Bouteflika to stand for re-election in the 2009 presidential elections, and he was re-elected in April 2009.During his election campaign and following his re-election, Bouteflika promised to extend the programme of national reconciliation and a $150-billion spending programme to create three million new jobs, the construction of one million new housing units, and to continue public sector and infrastructure modernisation programmes.A continuing series of protests throughout the country started on 28 December 2010, inspired by similar protests across the Middle East and North Africa.On 24 February 2011, the government lifted Algeria's 19-year-old state of emergency.The government enacted legislation dealing with political parties, the electoral code, and the representation of women in elected bodies.In April 2011, Bouteflika promised further constitutional and political reform.However, elections are routinely criticised by opposition groups as unfair and international human rights groups say that media censorship and harassment of political opponents continue.On 2 April 2019, Bouteflika resigned from the presidency after mass protests against his candidacy for a fifth term in office.In December 2019, Abdelmadjid Tebboune became Algeria's president, after winning the first round of the presidential election with a record abstention rate – the highest of all presidential elections since Algeria's democracy in 1989.Tebboune is accused to be close to the military and being loyal to the deposed president.Tebboune rejects these accusations, claiming to be the victim of a witch hunt.He also reminds his detractors that he was expelled from the Government in August 2017 at the instigation of oligarchs languishing in prison.Geography Since the 2011 breakup of Sudan, and the creation of South Sudan, Algeria has been the largest country in Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin.