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AFP
Algerians will vote to amend the constitution for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, and it is a constitution that President Abdel Majid Tebboune, who appointed a committee to amend, sees as consistent with the requirements of modern state building. and satisfies the demands of the popular movement ”. However, many people do not agree with him on this.
“The new Algeria is no different from the old Algeria. We see the same faces and the same practices that we knew in the Abdelaziz Bouteflika era.” So told us Adel Herch, a university student who participated in the February movement last year and who overthrew Bouteflika, who ruled Algeria for two decades.
Herch asks angrily: “Isn’t this the same parliament that was approving Bouteflika’s bills? Doesn’t this committee also belong to the Bouteflika era?
The last referendum in which Algerians voted on constitutional amendments was in 1996, during the Lamine Zeroual government, when Bouteflika amended the constitution more than once, but the amendments were made without consulting the people.
This referendum will take place next November, amid precautionary measures to face the Corona virus.
“The president was free.”
The new constitutional reforms stipulate that the country’s president may only run for two terms, whether consecutive or separate, and the term of each term will be five years. It will also be possible, for the first time since Algeria’s independence from France, to send the Algerian army on missions outside the country, subject to the approval of two-thirds of the parliament.
And if the legislative elections produce a parliamentary majority, the president of the country must appoint a head of government from this majority, unlike the previous situation, since the president was free to choose who would head the government without being bound by a specific party. .
These amendments will also include an official recognition of the popular movement.
“I’m very disappointed.”
The president, Abdel Majid Tebboune, elected last December, pledged during his electoral campaign to carry out profound constitutional reforms “that enshrine the principle of separation of powers and put an end to individual government.”
But Herch believes that the constitutional amendments “kept the same broad powers in the hands of the country’s president and charted a path that is unclear.” “I am very disappointed,” he adds. There is no promising future for Algeria in the current political situation ”.
AFP
Some of those who participated in the movement are calling for a vote against these amendments.
The president appoints most of the key positions, including the judiciary, the heads of military and security agencies, and banking agencies. While critics argue that this strengthens an individual’s government, supporters of the constitutional amendments respond by saying that the amendments have already reduced presidential powers, especially compared to what was the case with former President Bouteflika.
Some of those who participated in the movement demanded to vote against these amendments written by an unelected committee, while others called for a boycott of the referendum process as a whole, since they see it as an expression that does not express to a people that I was looking for a real change.
The chief of staff of the Algerian army, Said Chengriha, called for the success of the referendum on constitutional amendments, calling it an “important date” and saying that Algerians must “arbitrate the voice of reason and give a balanced logic to the interests personal “.
The army in Algeria continues to be an important component of the political scene, even if it does not lead it, just as other actors stand out on the same scene, including the Islamic parties, which have shown a clear division regarding their position on the constitutional amendments. .
Some Islamic parties, such as the National Building Movement, preferred to align themselves with authority and support the amendments. Meanwhile, other parties, led by the Movement for Society for Peace, are mobilizing the country’s largest Islamic party to vote against these amendments. Islamists oppose materials that they believe affect Algeria’s national and religious identity.
“We reject the secularization of Algeria”
The amendments confirm that the Amazigh language is a national and official language, and this article cannot be changed in any future constitution, but Islamists reject what they see as equality between Tamazight and Arabic, and criticize articles that stipulate that the state guarantees that schools and mosques are excluded from any political or ideological orientation. They protest that the amendments do not contain an explicit text adopting the Islamic religion as the main source of legislation.
“Ensuring the neutrality of schools and mosques reflects the orientation of secular movements in the world,” said Abdel-Ali Hassani Sharif, a member of the Executive Office of the Society for Peace Movement. We reject the secularization of Algerian society ”. “The identity in Algeria is deep, and whoever wants to steal the identity of Algerians, let him try,” he added.
Critics complain that the draft constitution has not been the subject of real social debate and that discussions about it have been confined to the corridors of parliament. The constitution drafting committee, headed by jurist Ahmed Laarraba and made up of 16 members, says it has received thousands of proposals from parties and civil society, and that it took many of those views into account.
AFP
The National Democratic Assembly is among the forces in favor of constitutional reforms
“There is no consensus,” says Sharif. There should have been dialogue, because this is a constitution that comes after a popular movement. The authority took the proposals and adapted them according to their vision.
“The president of the country must live with any parliament, whatever it may be.”
The main supporters of the constitutional amendments are parties known to be close to power, such as the National Liberation Front and the National Democratic Rally. These parties praise many articles related to freedoms.
The new amendments prohibit the dissolution of any party or group or the suspension of the activity of any means of communication except by order of the judiciary. In addition, a Constitutional Court will be created, instead of the current Constitutional Council, to resolve disputes between the various authorities and have a strong oversight role to prevent legal violations. According to the amendments, the head of state will not be able to issue legislative decrees during the parliamentary recess.
A member of the political bureau of the Democratic National Assembly, Mustafa Yahi, said: “This is the constitution of freedoms par excellence. There are 44 articles for individual and collective freedoms. It will also give a wider space for opposition. “
“For the first time, we are talking about a parliamentary majority. If there is a majority that opposes the president, then he can appoint a prime minister, and the president of the country must live with this parliament.
Supporters say the constitutional amendments are seen as the president’s project in the first place. Therefore, the president may find himself in great shame in the face of public opinion, if the Algerians reject this constitution. And if the draft constitution is approved, state institutions will have to find a way to deal with opposing voices who saw nothing in these amendments that would satisfy their ambitions and their dream of a new Algeria.
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