A committee to draw up the constitution amendments, Bouteflika

A committee in charge of drawing up a draft revision of the constitution is due to be established, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced on Monday in Algiers.

• In his inaugural speech at the ministries council, President Bouteflika said “Concerning the draft revision of the constitution, I’m due to assign a competent commission to be in charge of this mission. Political parties and figures will submit their propositions and contributions to this commission.”
• “As soon as the commission accomplishes its work, I’ll be submitted the draft, before a final version will be submitted to the Parliament, in compliance with the constitution,” Mr Bouteflika added.
• “In case the draft carries deep amendments, it will be referred to popular referendum to decide on it, after being submitted to the Parliament,” President specified.
• However, the amendments should by no means harm fundamental foundations of the State, including Republicanism, the democratic system based on multipartism, Islam, Arabic Language, civil rights, the unity of the territories, as well as the national flag and the national hymn, Mr Bouteflika concluded.

• Elsewhere, President mentioned that the aforementioned committee will be chaired by current head of the Council of Nation (upper house of the Parliament) Abdelkader Bensalah, who is due to hold meetings with political parties and figures to obtain views and proposals on the package of reforms announced including the next revision of the Constitution.

  “Political parties and national figures will be widely consulted on all political reforms to promote … meetings will soon be initiated under the supervision of a national personality,” he said.

  “These political consultations will include the opportunity to gather views and proposals of parties and personalities on all of the announced reforms, including the next revision of the Constitution,” he added.