Controversy over the constitutionality of the President's term extension

Premise of the President Bouteflika’s term extension raised controversy among scholars of the constitutional law, while other parties speak about the impossibility of extension for “constitutional and legal reasons”, except in case of a war, which increased the possibility of a fourth term as confirmed by another party that added that “geopolitical considerations” have a relationship to what is happening on the borders of the country.

Desire of President Bouteflika to continue at the top of the state becomes clear since his return from his therapeutic trip in France, and what has been taken from crucial decisions recently, as interpreted by observers of the political affairs, who said it is a tightening of the grip on the joints of the state in preparation to run for a fourth term or at least extend the third if he will not run for the upcoming elections.

In this regard, a former member of the Constitutional Council, Amer Rekhila, ruled out the possibility that the coming draft of constitution what will refer to the extension of the presidential term to two years, as an alternative to the fourth term, adding: “Since days we hear about a proposal to extend the duration of the presidential term to two years as it promoted by some political forces, but this proposal is not based on any text neither in the Constitution nor in the law on elections.”

Amer Rekhila told Echorouk on Friday that it was too early to rule out the possibility that the President of the Republic intends to extend the current term or to launch a fourth term as long as the text of the draft was not officially disclosed adding; “Why are they proposing the extension for two years, without one year or a full term? then why extension in itself, is it for the good preparation of the elections, or the lack of candidates?”, then he answers:” I think that the objective of launching such propositions without justifications, is only a shuffling of papers”.

“Saying that the expected constitutional amendment will be added to the transitional provision includes the extension of two years, as long as the Constitution focused on what is coming and is not applied retroactively, this is not possible from a constitutional standpoint, because one of the advantages of constitutions is that they are fixed and are subject to adjustment whenever a new president came, as well as that the new constitution will include a transitional provision, which requires discussion in this matter”.

“Possibility of extending the current presidential term for the President Bouteflika is related to “the obligatory situation”, which is the impossibility of organizing the presidential elections due to political and security considerations, such as a war situation. As for what is being said on the health status of the President and its impact on elections, there is nothing in the election law that would oblige the candidate to run the campaign by himself.”