Initial euphoria over the Algerian president’s decision to give up his candidacy for a fifth term quickly gave way on Tuesday to skepticism and anger among opposition figures who called the move a “trick” to save his troubled government.

Hundreds of youthful protesters returned to the streets of Algiers and other cities a day after the government canceled the April election, and the country’s independent news media gave voice to a sense that the elderly and infirm president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was maneuvering to extend his mandate under the guise of “reform.”

Independent television in Algeria broadcast images of demonstrators holding signs with messages like “No extension, game over” and “System, give it up,” using one of the names Algerians commonly give to the ruling circle.

The way forward in this giant, oil-rich North African country, four times the size of its former colonizer, France, is unclear. What is nearly certain, though, is that the anti-government demonstrations that have repeatedly hit cities and towns from the coastal north to the desert south will continue.