MPs Demand Amendment To The Draft Law On Relations With The Government

The Legal Affairs and Freedoms Committee of the National People’s Assembly will begin discussing, early next week, a draft law that amends and complements Organic Law No. 16-12, which is currently on the table of the parliament’s office, at a time when the deputies of the lower chamber of Parliament threatened to open a discussion about the document that contravened their expectations.
It seems that the document of the organic law regulating the relationship between the government and the two-chamber parliament, in its amended version, did not live up to the deputies’ expectations of the National People’s Assembly, who had previously called for a total amendment to the text of the draft to adapt it to the provisions of the constitution, which was contrary to their expectations after the unveiling of the text of the new draft.
They stressed in statements to Echorouk, that the law carried simple amendments that did not address all the concerns of the deputies, especially those related to the regulatory and legislative work.
This was confirmed by the Parliamentary Representative of the National Liberation Front Party, Sid Ahmed Tammari, who drew attention to the issue of oral and written questions directed to the ministerial staff, which did not appear in the text of the new draft, although it was one of the issues that the deputies focused on in the proposals submitted to the government, indicating in a statement to Echorouk: “Determining the deadline for responding to the questions and their organization was not addressed, which calls for reopening a serious discussion about the new version of the draft law.
According to the parliamentarian, “the organic law regulating the relationship between the government and parliament is of great importance as it is related to constitutional texts that require in-depth study and discussion.”
To add, “The representatives of the People’s National Assembly have previously submitted their proposals to the government regarding the organic law, because its articles are in the powers of the representatives and are primarily concerned with the legislative institution, and would raise the level of the oversight and legislative performance of the two chambers of Parliament,” saying: “Improving legislative performance is in the interest of the legislature and State institutions as they pour into the path of building the new Algeria, which the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has called for on every occasion.
On the other hand, the representative of the National Building Movement, Abdallah Boushama, questioned the nature of the amendments that affected the new draft law, which is expected to be presented to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Freedoms in the National People’s Assembly, noting that the new version did not carry important amendments as it was, expected, especially since parliamentarians had previously requested by radically amending the text of the draft to adapt it to the provisions of the constitution.
According to a member of the Legal Committee, the new version will be discussed by the members of the committee, who will be entrusted with the tasks of examining the provisions of the draft, which is at the heart of the MPs’ attention and their legislative performance.
For reference, the new text of the Organic Law, some of which were previously published by Echorouk, gave wide powers to the representatives of both houses of Parliament to hold the government accountable on files of public interest, except for issues of a sensitive nature such as security and foreign relations.