Harkis come back with Constitution

Human rights activists expressed astonishment over the dropping of the 7th condition in Article 73 of the Constitution amended in 2008. It is related to the past of candidates’ parents during the Algerian liberation revolution.

Article 73 stipulates that candidate who is allowed to be elected as President should have original Algerian nationality, be Muslim, be 40 on the election day, have all his civil and political rights, confirm his wife’s Algerian nationality, prove that he participated in the November’s Revolution if he was born before January 1942, prove that his parents were not involved in acts against the Revolution if he was born after January 1942 and should declare his properties inside and outside the country.

According to Article 19 of the modifying draft of Article 73, the 7^th condition related to proving parents’ non involvement in acts against the Revolution.

The proposed article was submitted to political parties and personalities concerned by consultations with the chief of the President’s staff Ahmed Ouyahia.

Moussa Touati, former Secretary General of the National Coordination of Martyrs’ Sons said all the nations in the world apply legal texts to prevent anyone who has past characterized by forbidden acts from holding senior positions in the State.

“The 7^th condition was dropped on purpose. How it comes that no one paid attention to it. I think that the issue was planned,” he told Echorouk Monday on the phone.

The Coordination’s former leader Taher Benbaibeche said the condition related to the past of candidate’s parents was dropped on purpose. “How can such a clause in the Constitution be dropped and no one is aware of that. It must not be a spontaneous error.”

Human rights activist Boudjemaa Ghachir expressed the same opinion, saying it is an “unforgivable error.”