Lawyers: taking an oath will reveal Bouteflika’s health state

Lawyers said there is no article which prevents Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from assigning a cousin or a close person to submit application for the presidential elections due to be held in April and to conduct his electoral campaign. Some others said taking an oath will unveil the president’s real health conditions.

Lawyer Mokrane Ait Larbi told Echorouk there is no article either in the law on elections or the Constitution which stipulates that candidates should withdraw signatures form or conduct electoral campaign.

“Every candidate can go to the interior ministry to withdraw forms or assign someone else to do that. The same thing for electoral campaign,” he said.

President of the Algerian League of Human Rights Boudjemaa Ghachir believes that every candidate has the right to go to the ministry to withdraw the forms or assign someone else to do that.

“There is no legal text which obliges Bouteflika or any other candidate to go to the ministry or to conduct the electoral campaign in person,” he said.

He added that Bouteflika will have to take an oath personally if he is elected.

According to president of the National Consultative Commission for Human Rights Promotion Farouk Ksentini, Article 136 of the law on elections does not oblige President Bouteflika to submit his application at the Constitutional Council in person.

“That means candidates are not obliged to go to the Constitutional Council. They can assign someone else to do that while laws oblige the elected candidate to take an oath in person,” he told Echorouk.