OPPOSITION parties in Algeria have called for a boycott of presidential elections due in July, warning of attempts by elements of the regime to cling to power.

A number of leading opposition groupings, including the Development and Justice Party, al-Nahda and al-Benaa al-Watani, are refusing to take part in the poll, which they condemned as “an attempt by the illegitimate authority to replicate itself through false elections.”

A joint statement said: “The holding of elections with the same legal and regulatory framework will lead to the assumption of power by the same authorities that the people are now demanding step down.”

Algeria has been gripped by a political crisis amid the biggest demonstrations seen in the country since it won liberation from French colonialism in 1962.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets every Friday since February, when former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika decided to seek a fifth term of office despite rarely being seen in public since a 2013 stroke.

Strikes by Algerian trade unions increased the pressure on Mr Bouteflika, who scrapped elections planned for April 19 while reversing his decision to stand for re-election.

He finally relinquished power on April 2, but protesters have continued their uprising as they seek to sweep aside the whole regime.

They have demanded that the so-called “three B’s” – interim President Abdelkader Bensalah, Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui and Constitutional Council chair Tayeb Belaiz — step aside because of their close links to Mr Bouteflika.

The three are suspected of being responsible for the 1957 murder of Abane Ramdane, a fellow National Liberation Front member and revolutionary who remains widely popular to this day.

Protesters achieved an initial success when Mr Belaiz resigned yesterday.

At least 40 mayors are also boycotting the elections, as are a group of judges who warned that the poll lacks freedom and integrity.