ALGERIAN President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has set a date of June 12 for early legislative elections in a bid to stave off renewed protests demanding meaningful democratic change.

In a televised address on Thursday evening he promised that the election would be free from corruption and have “political weight.”

He said the poll would “open the doors of parliament to young people” as part of a political reform package that has seen the release of 59 political prisoners from the Hirak protest movement.

Elections were due to be held in 2022 but Mr Tebboune has brought them forward, under pressure from a recent resurgence of the street protests that ousted former leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019.

Protesters are demanding sweeping changes to the political system in Algeria and an end to a dominant military presence.

Mr Tebboune was elected president in December 2020 in a widely boycotted poll. Many Algerians are critical of the former prime minister because of his association with the former regime and as a puppet of the country’s armed forces.