Algeria: 20 Days In Front Of The Representatives… Leave The Job Or Fall Out Of Parliament!

The Speaker of the National People’s Assembly (APN), Brahim Boughali, has given 13 deputies until the end of the current month of Ramadan, to settle the situation of cases incompatible with the legislative mandate, by either resigning from their previous positions and tasks and devote themselves to the current parliamentary mandate, or relinquishing their parliamentary seat as stipulated by law, after Investigations proved that these people did not give up their previous jobs.

In this context, the head of the Legal Affairs and Freedoms Commission in the Lower House of Parliament, Mohammed Aziz, revealed to “Echorouk” that there are cases inconsistent with the parliamentary mandate recorded by some of the 13 deputies, noting that among the files studied by the commission there are deputies who have settled their status before the expiry of the deadlines set by the Chairman of the People’s National Assembly, which expire at the end of the current month of fasting of Ramadan.

And about the justifications provided by these people, he – our interlocutor – said that most of them are ignorant of the text of the law that forbids a parliamentarian during his tenure to combine a job or a commercial activity, which led them to a legal problem.

According to Mohammed Aziz, the text of Article 118 of the Constitution is clear. Every elected member of the council of the nation or a deputy in the People’s National Assembly must devote himself to exercising his tenure in full, and he cannot combine it with other mandates or positions, similar to the position of a member in the government or in the court. the constitutional authority, in addition to a position in public bodies and administrations, regional groups, public institutions or membership of their bodies and social structures, and the same thing adds – the speaker – with regard to a position in an institution, company, commercial or financial grouping, or industrial, artisan, or even agricultural one.

A member of Parliament whose membership has been proven, says Mohammed Aziz, must deposit a statement with the office of the relevant chamber within thirty days following the installation of his bodies, and the parliament’s office shall refer the statement stipulated in this article to the legal committee, which expresses its opinion on it within a deadline not exceeding 15 days from the date of nootification. As for the deputies concerned with the notification, investigations showed that they did not give up their prohibited positions and activities, which are mostly commercial activities and not related to government jobs.

If the inconsistency is proven, the office informs the member concerned and gives him a period of thirty days to choose between his parliamentary mandate or resignation in compliance with the above-mentioned law.