Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal starts negotiations for the revision of the constitution

The Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal has started a series of unofficial negotiations with party leaders and other national personalities pending the setting up of a National Commission for the Revision of the Constitution, whose task is set to begin soon.

The minister met with a number of party leaders that forwarded their suggestions and displayed their visions concerning the necessary revisions to be made on the constitution, putting the focus on the articles that shouldn’t be changed on account of their” sacredness”, reliable sources have revealed.

The meeting will include all the political parties regardless of their influence on the Algerian political landscape, but many observers raise questions concerning the position of the two major parties, FLN and RND undermined by internal conflicts since a while.

To recall, the interior minister Dahou Oueld Kablia has revealed in an interview made to Echourouk days ago that the Commission for the Revision of the Constitution will be set up soon and will start its work during the first quarter of 2013.

He hinted to the probability of organizing a referendum in case where the revised constitution fails to keep the balance between the institutions.

The 1996 constitution, that the president Bouteflika said about it , that it dislikes it but respects it, has underwent two changes; the first one in 2002 where it included the Berber language as a national one, and the second in 2008 that touched the presidential mandate and replaced the post of head of Government by the Prime Minister.