Algeria: 21 deputies change their parties

The office of People’s National Assembly announced the withdrawal of 21 deputies from their parliamentary groups. Of them, nine deputies from the Green Algeria Alliance joined Tadjamou Amel El Djazaïr (TAJ) party led by Ammar Ghoul.

Five other deputies from the Algerian Algerian Front (FNA) led by Moussa Touati, two deputies from the National Party for Solidarity and Development, four deputies from El Fedjr El Jadid, the Algerian rally, the Party of Algerian Renewal and the National Front for Social Justice withdrew.

The Green Algeria Alliance is the biggest looser as it lost 9 deputies. The FNA has now four deputies only out of nine who won the last legislatives. Some of them joined Ammar Younes’ Algerian Popular Movement.

The TAJ attracted the largest number of deputies as it has now 44.

President of the Green Algeria Alliance’s parliamentary group Naamane Laouer believes that the withdrawing deputies “did not keep their promises and were not loyal because they won local elections in the name of their party.”

“That would not affect the parliamentary block which can suggest to amend draft bills. Parties became like commercial registers.”

According to Moussa Touati, the phenomenon had no impact on his party. “What would those deputies give to the FNA while there is no real Parliament in the country?”

He believes that parties which attract deputies have no ideology neither do they have principles. “The deputies signed commitments when they ran for legislatives. It is a moral commitment more than a legal duty. It is impossible to sue them because they have parliamentary immunity.”