FIS leader boycotts consultations over Algeria's new constitution
Senior member of the dissolved-Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) Abdelkader Boukhemkhem said he boycotted consultations over Algeria’s draft constitution and called for a “real transition phase” with the participation of all the political parties and government.
“I wonder why I was invited to discuss the draft constitution as a national personality and not as the FIS’ founder,” said Boukhemkhem in a release.
“I am invited while I am not allowed to exercise my political and civil rights. I am still under judicial control because I took part in a march in support of Gaza in January 2009,” he added.
He believes that the consultations are conducted in “very bad conditions” following “presidential elections boycotted by most of the Algerian people. Because of that, those elections are not legitimate and have no popular representation. There is internal and external tension. Drafting the constitution is no more than an attempt to distract people.”
He also said the FIS proposed many initiatives to overcome the Algerian crisis such as the “National Pact Initiative on January 13th 1995.” “It was an unprecedented event in Algeria’s history but the political regime rejected it.