ABSTRACT
Boumédienne led the country as head of state from 1965 until he was formally elected to the presidency in 1976. After Boumédienne’s death in 1978, Colonel Chadi Bendjedid was elected president, a post he held until 1992. In 1989, Algeria adopted a new constitution that permitted the formation of political parties other than the FLN; among the parties that arose was the militant Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). After years of suppression by the government, the FIS was successful in winning votes and seats in the National Assembly in 1990. The Algerian military, fearful of an Islamist government, dissolved the National Assembly, banned the FIS, and forced Bendjedid to resign. He was replaced by a five-person High Council, which canceled elections and then asked Mohamed Boudiaf, a hero of the war for independence, to serve as president. Islamists responded with violence, and more than 50,000 members of the FIS were jailed. Still, the fighting continued between government forces and the FIS. In 1992, Boudiaf was assassinated by Lembarek Boumarafi on behalf of the Islamists. Years of guerrilla warfare followed.
