Algerian constitutional council opens doors for new condidtaes

Algerian constitutional council gave people who wish to become candidates in the upcoming April elections a two-week ultimatum to deposit their files.

• “23 February 2009 will be the last date to accept candidates’ files in the council,” reported the council Monday.
• The council based its decision on resolution n° 60-09 of the current February, which was issued by the president three days ago, containing a call for the electorate body to vote in 2009, as well as the article 158 of the order containing the law on the electoral system which provides that the permission to become candidate must be submitted in fifteen days not more, after the presidential decree which contains calling the electoral body.
• First constitutional institution in Algeria said that depositing the file for candidature must be run by the candidate himself at the constitutional council secretary. The candidate must receive a receipt, after he had been committed to the constitutional law n° 73, which requires “every candidate must have the original Algerian nationality, he must be a Muslim, 40 year-old, enjoying full civil and political rights, his wife must be Algerian, he also must be a Moudjahid (freedom fighter who participated in the revolution of the 1st November 1954) if he was born after July 1942, and his fathers were not involved in any activities against the Algerian revolution”.
• Article 73 also requires public declaration of the properties inside or outside Algeria.