Algeria President to launch change initiative

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is expected to involve political parties, civil society and national, personalities to launch a political initiative meant to make change in the current regime, Echorouk has learnt.

• Abdelaziz Bouteflika will hold a conference at the Palais des Nations in Algiers to invite opposition members to open a national debate about decisive decisions.
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• The president will suggest organising meetings with leaders of parties and national personalities as part of dialogue and exchange of points of view. A set of decisions will be announced officially by Bouteflika.
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• The decisions will include constitutional amendment, possibility of Parliament dissolution, early legislative elections and a governmental reshuffle.
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• This comes after the president had held a working séance with Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, the State Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, the Constitutional Council’s president Boualem Bessayeh, the president of the Council of Nation Abdelkader Ben Saleh and Parliament’s Speaker Abdelaziz Ziari. They discussed about the constitutional amendment and Parliament dissolution.
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• The meeting was preceded by a meeting held by the Security Council followed by a meeting with Ouyahia, Belkhadem and Ziari at the headquarters of the People’s National Assembly (APN).
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• Leader of the MSP party Abu Djerra Soltani and the FLN and RND’s associate in the presidential alliance was absent in meetings attended by Ouyahia and Belkhadem.
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• It is possible that the Vice-President position would be introduced in the constitutional amendment. President Bouteflika talked about it after the partial amendment in 2008. New parties are expected to be accredited and the elections law will be revised.
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• A few days ago, former leader of the FLN party Abdelhamid Mehri conveyed an open letter to Bouteflika suggesting to hold a national meeting to make change. National personalities including the FFS’ leader Hocine Ait Ahmed welcomed it while the president has not expressed his opinion about it.