Abdallah Djaballah: “The new constitution is a ‘masquerade’ marred by 100 lapses”

Abdallah Djaballah harshly criticized on Thursday the provisions of the draft Law on the Revision of the National Constitution particularly as regards the definition of the Algerian State and the formalization of Tamazight language.

“The preamble has caused a rift between the State of November 1st 1954 when it says that (the Constitution) guarantees the freedom of every individual in the context of a democratic and republican state,” said the president of the Front for Justice and Development (FJD) in an eight-page published document, entitled: “A reading of the draft revision of the Constitution.

For Mr Djaballah, this way of presenting things is “the state’s secular orientation” and not the state described in the declaration of November 1st 1954, “which speaks of an Algerian, democratic, social and sovereign state embedded in the framework of Islamic principles”.

Abdellah Djaballah also referred to the formalization of Tamazight in the new amended constitution and called into question the letters with which this language will be written.

“This neglect is intentional and will serve the vested interests of those who argue that this language is written with the Latin alphabet. If this adverse contingency happens, it will be something very serious against the Arab language, “he hammered.

In this draft law on the revision of the country’s constitution, the FJD President also sees a “crime” as he put it, stressing that “The concentration of all powers in the hands of the President (…) In reality, there is only one power, that of the President of the Republic himself,” he underscored.

The amendments are, in their majority, simple and partial but they address the social balances of the Algerian

population and therefore require a popular referendum, he argued.

Abdallah Djaballah finally surmised that this revamped constitution contains over 100 lapses in its various provisions and urged the power establishment to “halt this big masquerade”, as he put it.”