Amid huge protests and a boycott, five candidates with links to the Bouteflika regime squared off and former Prime Minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune came out ahead.
Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania have a turbulent history. But they've created a joint bid to secure world heritage status for a food with deep roots and cultural meaning across the region.
Bouteflika has been in power since 1999. Instead of holding an election this month to determine who will succeed the 82-year-old leader, Algeria's government will enter a new "transition" phase.
"I particularly understand the message given by youth, in terms of anxiety and ambition for their own future and that of the country," said 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Throngs of people flooded the streets of the North African country's cities on Friday to demand the ailing president withdraw from the April 18 election. Clashes with police developed in Algiers.
Demonstrations at universities across the country called on the president of two decades not to run again. Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.
In the past 14 months, more than 13,000 migrants and refugees have been dumped in the Sahara by Algerian authorities, with unknown numbers dying in the desert, The Associated Press says.
As demonstrations against the satirical magazine are staged in many parts of the Muslim world, the French president defends what he says is his country's principle of freedom of expression.
Three assailants who allegedly carried out two separate attacks in and around the French capital this week were reportedly linked by religious zealotry and a 2010 prison-break plot.
