“Democratic Pole of Change” spurns Ouyahia’s constitutional revision consultations

Thirteen small political parties that had supported the candidate Ali Benflis in his candidacy for April 17 presidential elections in Algeria have announced their decision not to participate in the projected revision of the Constitution initiated by the authorities at the behest of President Abdellaziz Bouteflika.

Concurrently, former head of government Mouloud Hamrouche has been holding round-tables with associations of civil society to take the pulse of the country, but he doesn’t seem willing to extend as well his backing for the new draft fundamental law.

The same approach is being adopted by the Coordination for the freedoms and democratic transition. In fact, it is all the opposition that is bent to refuse to take part in the consultations initiated by the Executive Branch with a view to revamping the country’s constitution.

Opposition figures argued bluntly that such a constitutional revision process was covertly aimed at diverting the national public opinion from the deep crisis now gripping the country’s state institutions as a whole.

They branded such a process as a lure and a sham solely designed to perpetuate the mainstay of the current political establishment to the detriment of genuine democratic forces in the country.

Most of the Pole’s opposition leaders – including secular and Islamist rivals – have already rejected Bouteflika’s proposal they join the debate, dismissing the invitation as a move to co-opt them rather than an attempt at real reform.

“Two years ago, the regime called us to make proposals for a new constitution. They did not take into consideration any of our suggestions,” Abderazak Mokri, leader of the moderate Islamist party MSP, said this week. “This new invitation is just another way to fool the opposition.”

But the opposition parties, which mostly boycotted the April 17 presidential election, are split over how to challenge a political system they say is controlled by the FLN, its political allies and business elites who support the status quo.