Deputies express disapproval of Bouteflika’s decision to assign the political reforms to parliament

Algerian deputies express surprise, disapproval and frustration following President Bouteflika’s decision to assign the functions of political reforms to parliament in his Friday speech to the nation, saying that the parliament has no credibility and for this reason he should have been announced the dissolving.

  “Decision to order the parliament to formulate a new legislative reform is just a disregard for Algerians who were waiting for the decision to dissolve it, however; unfortunately, he decided to honor it through giving it the right to carry out political reforms. This was very disappointing and we are continuing in the tyranny”,   Arezki Ferad, former deputy at the lower chamber told Echorouk.

“Unfortunately, the President Bouteflika has chosen the wrong way because his decision means that FLN and RND are responsible for the political reform, however; these two parties can only allow tyranny. How can Algerians trust in a parliament that was implicated in assassinating Algerians’ hope through amending Article 74 (which allowed the president to run for more than two terms)? This is disregard for people. Everyone knows that the parliament has become just a recording room and its position towards the criminalization of colonialism remains a shame”, he added.

“President Bouteflika neglects all honorable initiatives of wised men like Mahri and Ait Ahmed, through preferring FLN and LND proposals. This means that Bouteflika did not take a lesson on what is happening in the Arab World and did not take into account the social protests which will turn later to a political dynamics”.

For his part, an expert in constitutional law, Senator Bouzid Lezhari said; “President’s talk about parliament is an attempt to tighten and consolidate the prosecution and representation. Perhaps there is a will to enable parliament to play its full role and a call to the government so as not to disrupt the work of legislative body”.

Lezhari, who took part in the liberation of the constitution of 1996, added that parliament is not the only responsible on the drop of legislative performance which ended with the loss of its credibility; “An objective analysis should take place in order address the real causes that brought parliament to the current situation”.

These statements are already highlighting the urgent need to neutralize the current parliament and its estrangement from any participation in the fate of reforms that are still in the beginning, at least in respect to the feeling of millions of Algerians who got enough of an institution which succeeded only in raising the salaries of its members.