A royal republic will hardly address the many seething problems Algeria faces, frets Nosreddine Qassem In a formal session bringing in both houses of the Algerian parliament -- the Council of Nation and National Popular Council -- held at the Palais des Nations Hall, representatives voted 500 to 529 with eight abstentions, without any discussion, to support the constitutional amendment proposal submitted by President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika. The new constitution opened the door to the president allowing him to run for a third term. The amendments also marked some changes in the function of the executive authority. The president did not conceal his inclination towards a strictly presidential regime. By virtue of the constitutional amendments, described as partial, he is no longer accountable before parliament. The vote also allows for the establishment of the post of prime minister, to be nominated by and subordinate to the president. Under the previous constitution the head of government was more autonomous in accordance to the amended Article 79. The first minister, although merely an executor according to amended Article 81, is the one who is held responsible whenever the government's programme encountered obstacles or failures. In this context, Ahmed Ouyahia, the head of government, submitted his resignation to the president, who responded by renewing his and his ministers' positions, except for the communications minister, Abderrachid Boukerzaka, who was effectively replaced by former state radio head Azzedine Mihoubi. Boukerzaka most likely ran foul of Ouyahia. He was certainly not the worst of the lot. The president was also undecided on how to deal with this sector, which is not under the government's full control. Leaving aside the slogans such as enhancing women's constitutional rights and the protection of national symbols, the constitutional amendments were unable to conceal the main objective -- enabling Bouteflika to rule for life. Analysts even went further in describing Algeria as turning into royal republic. For his part, the president openly explained this as "the special democracy model applied in Algeria". He argued that it is impossible to set one universal democracy model that fits all because the problem in Algeria was never one of freedoms, democracy or rights but rather application and observance. Those issues never embarrassed the regime. The truly embarrassing issue in the 1996 constitution is that it openly prohibits lifetime rule by insisting on a maximum limit of two terms. Former head of government and present First Minister Ahmed Ouyahia took much trouble to present evidence and international models to show that the constitutional amendment did not violate any democracy gains. He gave examples of Britain, France and even US president Franklin Roosevelt. Ouyahia said, "In Britain, the most inveterate democracy, the prime minister is not restricted to a certain number of terms. The same concept applies in France. As for the USA, Franklin Roosevelt continued ruling for three consecutive terms due to relevant struggles in the country." Ouyahia forgot to add that he was the one behind the amended constitution, just as he promoted the previous one as head of the government during the reign of former president Liamin Zerwal in February 1996. What is even stranger is the first minister, while defending the people's right to freedom of choice, stressed that it is impossible for the opposition to come to power. In this context, he used a popular idiom saying this will never happen "till salt grows flowers". The only pretense to popular input in the formation of the constitutional amendments was the acceptance of recommendations by the opposition Union for Culture and Democracy, which uttered not a peep during the session which passed the amendments. Both political groups and media were prevented from making any public criticisms, the only venue for protest being a meeting of oppositionists in Switzerland. The main target of the Geneva gathering was "to find peaceful resolutions to the political blockage and crisis that has existed during the past two decades" in Algeria. A number of political, intellectual and trade union leaders aimed at presenting a third solution to the crisis. They called for public input into determining a consensus about how to achieve social accord and justice without violence, one of the participants told Al-Khabar. However, the group call was as far from practical as Geneva is from Algiers.
