Presidential Elections 2014: Fourth term not linked to Constitution Amendment Process

Return of President Bouteflika to the French military hospital, Val-De-Grace, and signing a decree on calling the electoral body, are probabilities of his candidacy for the fourth term, which opposition parties insisted yo link them to amending the constitution, claiming that his health situation is bad.

President Bouteflika saw that it is a non-mandatory legal procedure, given the possibility of continuing in the conduct of the country’s affairs under the way it used since years ago.

A specialist in law and former President of the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, Houcine Khaldoune, thinks that amending the constitution is one of President’s powers.

“FLN was among the first parties which asked for amending the basic law of the country, as it respects the amendment mechanism, as well as the president’s freedom to choose the timing of the amendment. The process may not be done before the presidential elections, on the grounds of lack of time, and the start of preparations for the presidential elections.”

“Amendment of the country’s Basic Law has no relationship with the health situation of President Bouteflika. I think that the President was smart because he had not kept pace with project he promoted about the need to amend the constitution before the Presidential Elections under the pretext of his health situation, which forces him to use the Vice President in the performance of his duties.”

Lawyer and former President of the Association for the Defense of Human Rights, Boudjamaa Ghachir, ruled out the idea of amending the constitution after the Presidential Elections. 

“The country’s affairs remained going despite the president’s illness, and the fourth term’s supporters do not bother about that at all.”

“There are things that become applicable in Algeria, which means that the closer circle of the president is the one which conducts the country’s affairs, and not the president. Either if they want to legalize this situation, they will resort to amending the constitution, in order to create the position of vice-president, who cares about protocol matters. In my opinion, both cases do not serve the people, because we need a Constitution that respects the people’s sovereignty, through a constituent assembly to prepare for the new Algerian constitution”.

“President’s visit to France has two possibilities, either for medical tests, or in order to get a medical certificate”.