(CNN) A day that many in Algeria had longed for but barely dreamed possible has now arrived. After two decades in power, the country's octogenarian ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika has bowed to mass protests and relinquished the presidency.

Bouteflika's resignation on Tuesday was a huge turnabout for the sickly 82-year-old leader, who had initially planned on running for a fifth term in elections slated for April. The prospect had triggered weeks of demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of dissatisfied Algerians. Meanwhile, the presidential vote has also been shelved.

Euphoric scenes broke out in the capital of Algiers when state media carried reports that Bouteflika had ceded control with immediate effect. Men, women and children wrapped themselves in the Algerian national flag and burst into song and blared car horns on the city's streets.

Many Algerians brought their children to celebrations on Tuesday night.

Pressure on Bouteflika had been intensifying

Elected in 1999, Moroccan-born Bouteflika was praised during his first two five-year terms for steering the North African country back to stability following "the black decade" of the 1990s when a bloody civil war left more than 150,000 dead.

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