Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was sworn in for a fourth term yesterday after he easily won an election opponents dismissed as rigged to return the ailing leader to power for another five years.

State TV showed Bouteflika, 77, sitting in a wheelchair to take his oath and give his first public speech for at least two years. A stroke last year had already raised questions about his ability to govern.

“I thank the Algerian people for their renewed confidence,” Bouteflika said in a weak, often wavering voice before supporters in a packed Algiers hall. “The April 17 election was a victory for democracy.”

Under Bouteflika, a veteran of the war that ended with independence in 1962, the Opec producer has become a partner in Washington’s campaign against al-Qaeda-linked militancy in the Maghreb and a supplier of about a fifth of Europe’s gas imports.

But Bouteflika’s frail health has left questions about what happens next, who replaces him if he cannot govern for the entire term and how that would affect political and economic reforms and oil investment in the North African country.