Enfin : Bouteflika annonce une révision partielle et limitée de la Constitution

[Al-khiyal]

Algeria: Debate on constitutional reform

by Robert P. Parks

On July 19, 2005, Secretary General Abdelaziz Belkhadem of the National Liberation Front (FLN), Algeria's current parliamentary majority party, announced the creation of a party commission for constitutional reform. Citing the pressing need to “clarify the nature of the regime,” he ignited the latest round of political debate over Algeria's Constitution.

The 1996 Algerian Constitution has few friends. Devised as a means of transitioning from military junta to civilian-dominated politics, it outlines an executive system that features both a president and a prime minister as well as a bicameral legislative system wrought with institutional checks and balances to hedge against a possible Islamist-dominated parliament. Algeria's political parties and civil society groups, excluded from the drafting process, complain that the constitution fails to disaggregate the duties of the executive and legislative branches. For his part, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has declared the document cumbersome and ill adapted to the exigencies of a society exiting armed insurrection and in desperate need of political and economic reform.

With so many powerful players lined up against it, it is surprising that the 1996 Constitution has lasted this long. The explanation is partly institutional and partly political. Amendments to the constitution can only be ratified through a national referendum, which requires either an executive decree or a three-quarter vote of the two houses of parliament (the National Assembly and the Senate) called into joint session. The two main parties comprising the current presidential coalition—the FLN and the Democratic National Rally (RND)—have proposed constitutional reform but neither has been able to gather the required three-fourths vote. Ostensibly parliamentary allies, each has rejected the other's reform proposals.

Underlying this dispute over institutional change is a struggle for control of the government. Article 79 of the Constitution allows the president to select the prime minister from outside the dominant party or coalition in the National Assembly, thus allowing him to play both parties against each other. Indeed, since the constitution's ratification, there have been two periods of awkward cohabitation. Between 1999 and 2002, the FLN held the premiership even though the RND had a governing 42 percent of National Assembly seats. And since 2003, RND Secretary General Ahmed Ouyahia has served as prime minister despite the FLN's 52 percent majority in parliament.

Like the RND's earlier efforts, the current round of FLN constitutional proposals are framed in the language of the institutional separation of powers, best illustrated in two speeches that initiated the debate last summer. On July 14, 2005, FLN Chairman of Party Organization and Finance Abdelkrim Abada demanded FLN control of the prime ministerial portfolio. Implying that it was up to President Bouteflika, who was named symbolic head of the FLN in January 2005, to deliver the premiership Abada added, “We [the FLN] are not the president's men; the president is our man, and we will continue to be his men only insofar as he continues to work for the party.” A few days later, FLN Secretary General Abdelaziz Belkhadem backpedaled, retracting Abada's statements on the premiership while affirming the urgent need to “clarify the nature of the regime” and “clarify the prerogatives of the president.”

As was the case with the previous aborted proposals, the current debate is opaque. Eight months into the discussion the FLN has yet to submit specific proposals to public debate. Belkhadem has kept discussion focused on Article 79, despite his repeated denials to the press of his prime ministerial ambitions. He sweetened the deal on January 18, 2006, announcing an FLN proposal to extend the length of presidential mandate from five to seven years and to abrogate the two-term limit—clearly a quid pro quo in return for the premiership. Given President Bouteflika's continued popularity, however, there is every reason to believe that he would succeed in a referendum to extend his mandate, with or without FLN support.

The constitutional reform impasse has been attributed to failed compromise over institutional details and to inter-party squabbling. The debate, however, should not be viewed as a long process of party negotiation and interest articulation. Rather, as previous proposals and current FLN debate illustrate, Algerian discussion on constitutional reform is a project driven by individuals, reflecting the weak state of Algerian civil and political society. In the absence of political parties with real platforms and the ability to mobilize, Algerian constitutional reform remains a presidential prerogative. And so the key question is not how reform to Article 79 might affect political parties in the long run, but whether the ailing President Bouteflika has the strength or the will to run for a third term in 2009.


Robert P. Parks is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas at Austin and is currently Director of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies' newest overseas center, the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), in Oran, Algeria.


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Robert P. Parks - Algeria: Debate on constitutional reform

[Al-khiyal]

Algiers, 29 May (AKI) - The National Liberation Front of Algeria's newly appointed Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem will call a referendum in October or November on a constitutional reform enabling President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a third mandate, Algiers-daily El Khabar reported on Monday. Belkhadem, a close ally of the president, replaced Ahmed Ouyahia as premier last Thursday.

Ouyahia's party, National Democratic Rally, opposes the constitutional reform which is supported by the National Liberation Front, the largest majority party, and the Movement for Justice and Peace, a party in the so-called 'presidential alliance' supporting Bouteflika.

At the referendum, citizens will vote on measures to allow a third presidential mandate, an extention of the president's mandate from five to seven years and stronger presidential powers.

Algeria's next presidential elections are scheduled in 2009 but under current legislation Bouteflika would not be able to run for a third time.

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Première conférence de presse de Belkhadem après sa nomination

[HDey]

COUP !

Please decipher for us !

[HDey]

Bouteflika is about to commit SUICIDE, and Belkhadem to LOCK Himself out of Algerian Politics. If he fails, someday some Republican President will call him up for deals with Iranians !

[Al-khiyal]

Sources reported that Abdelaziz Belkhadem, the general secretary of the national front for liberation FLN, will assign to a small group from the party the elaboration of the final version of suggestions concerning the amendment of the constitution that will be sent to the president of the republic on 15 June” who is the only person with the power to define the way and the date of the constitution amendment”, according to what Belkhadem has pointed out previously.

The FLN “coordination board” held, the day before yesterday, a consultative meeting in Hilton hotel, where its members discussed dossiers that are [in] actuality, like suggestions of constitution amendment, demand for pay increase and the core policy for public sector that is expected to be released from the government drawers after the take over of the top of the government by Belkhadem. The party of the majority was, for months, using political and media pressures for salaries increase [a] thing that left the impression that the demand will be materialised immediately after the departure of Ouyahia and the take over of Belkhadem.

Sources that are [close to] the meeting declared that the members of the “coordination board” that includes the executive board and ministers of the FLN and the presidents of the two parliamentary groups and the president of committee in the two chambers, have agreed on the continuation of the suggestions concerning the amendment of the high law, while the committee of the constitutional systems prepares the rough copy.... of the suggestions during the current week. The sources made it clear that the secretary of the executive committee will meet on Thursday to finish the suggestions before sending them to the president. In this context, well [informed] sources declared that Belkhadem will assigned a small group with the elaboration of the final version of these suggestions.

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[Al-khiyal]

Abou Djerra Soltani, the president of the Movement of the Society for Peace (MSP), unveiled the existence of what he calls “the national front to protect people will against the treachery in the next elections”. The front will be announced soon. The same [spokesman] refused that “the constitution of the national front for liberation FLN or any other party”, as a hint to what it has been declared by the FLN leadership, concerning the fact that the party has a rough project for the current constitution alteration.

The president of the movement for peace and society MSP declared, the day before yesterday, in front of the party militants who were crowded in the House for Culture in El Wadi , that it is necessary to protect [the peoples'] will and the reservation of [their] voice in the coming legislative elections. In order to achieve this, according to him, a national front for the protection of the people will be announced soon, adding that it includes political parties and national boards personalities, and it will attempt to achieve a positive result that reflects the trust of the population.

Abou Guerra points out that the principle objective from the creation of this front is to avoid the scenario of treachery that happened in the previous municipal and Wilaya elections, and the enforcement of the state efforts in its surveillance of the elections and the provision of more guarantees for the protection of the population's choice.

The leader of the MSP expressed his worries from the rough copy of the constitution alteration that was announced from the FLN, and which might serve one party at the expense of another. The same leader said “we don’t accept the constitution of the FLN, or any other party, but the state is the only party which has the right to do it, and the presidency can advance a referential document for constitutional alteration”, adding that his party, in case of the advancement of amendment project, demands that the Sharia Islamic (Islamic legislation) would be the only source for legislation in Algeria.

Concerning the presidential coalition, Abou Guerra mentioned that it hasn’t been achieved because the coalition was between parties to guarantee [a] sound atmosphere to realise the programme of the president, and the coalition is not going to be affected by, according to him, the walk out of one and the arrival of another, as a hint to the walk out of Ahmed Ouyahia and the arrival of Belkhadem.

Creation of the “National front to protect people’s will” soon