Faced with rising concern that it might fall victim to the same massive uprisings as its neighbor Tunisia, the government of Algeria announced today that they would implement a number of reforms designed to placate the growing opposition.
Chief amongst these promises was that the government would finally end its “state of emergency,” which it imposed after the military cancelled the 1991 elections and banned the political party that was winning.
The government also promised to focus more on job creation as well as to ensure that the tightly controlled state media would give air time to opposition political parties, at least the ones that haven’t been formally banned.
The opposition plans massive protests in Algeria on February 12, and the government has announced a ban on all soccer matches in an effort to prevent people discussing the possible protests. It is unclear when the reforms will take place but officials said it would be “in the very near future.”