Political debate goes beyond the fourth term to the Vice President's identity

Calls to encourage President Bouteflika to run for a fourth term flare remarkably and the scene becomes similar to what happened in the mid-nineties, when “spontaneous marches” were launched to ask the former President Liamine Zeroual to run for the presidency.

There is no difference between what is happening these days, and what happened earlier with President Zeroual, the only difference is that calls for the fourth term, are made by officials of political parties, which are known with standing by the decisions that are believed to be the power’s source, or at least, that are belong to a certain wing of the power.

Both Secretary-General of the National Liberation Front Party, Ammar Saadani, and the president of Algeria Hope, Amar Ghoul, supported President Bouteflika’s fourth term, which means, if the decision is determined by the power, it will be applied, just as happened with the endorsement of Amar Saadani, as the Secretary General of FLN party at the end of last August.

In addition, the central headquarters of the National Democratic Rally in Ben Aknoun, in Algiers, received dozens of data which support the nomination of Abdelkader Bensalah, for the position of Secretary General of the party, who had previously announced his support for the fourth term, parallel with confirmation of Miloud Chorfi, of the absence of the possibility of the return of the former Secretary General of the party, Ahmed Ouyahia, who is known for his political ambitions to the position of the Secretariat.

In spite of the “campaign” which is calling for the fourth term, but the first concerned with the issue, is the President Bouteflika, who is still silence, which raised the question about whether these calls that one of the affiliates to the supportive party to the fourth term, which is the party of Amara Ben Younès, that falls within the context of the preparation of the public opinion for an imminent announcement of candidacy.

Something should precede the announcement by President Bouteflika from running, which is the revision of the Constitution, which is long overdue, and included an article that created the position of vice president, who can be replace him at the management of the campaign if his health circumstances did not allow him to run it.