Last step for the presentation of the Algerian Constitution to the popular referendum

The latest draft of the Algerian Constitution will be submitted to Parliament on Monday for approval and presentation to Algerian society. The demands of the Hirak, the protest movement that has been filling the streets of Algerian cities for months demonstrating against a corrupt political class, have been partly heard.

"The proposal is totally in line with the requirements of modern state building and responds to the demands of the popular movement (Hirak)," said Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the Algerian president, in a statement on Sunday night. The Council of Ministers, headed by Tebboune, officially approved the final draft to amend the constitution, which it described as a "consensual constitution for building a modern Algeria".

Following Abdelaziz Bouteflika's resignation in response to the protests, Tebboune had promised to initiate reforms. The revised text has yet to be approved by parliament before it is submitted to a popular referendum on 1 November, the anniversary of the start of Algeria's war of independence from France in 1954-62.

The final document opens up the possibility of appointing a vice-president for the country for the first time since Algeria's independence 58 years ago.  Furthermore, the presidential election period was defined as two non-renewable cycles, either consecutive or separate. This measure is intended to prevent the country's leader from being able to remain in power for more than four years, as occurred with Bouteflika, who held the post of president of the Algerian Republic for two decades.

In the communiqué issued by the government, he promised that the reforms would bring about a "radical change in the system of government", and would prevent corruption and mean the establishment of a system of freedoms. The separation of powers between the executive and judicial systems is of vital importance in democratic states to establish a balance of powers, as well as transparency in the execution of public funds, "in order to prevent the country from drifting towards tyrannical despotism," the communiqué said.

The new constitution would give more power to the prime minister and parliament to govern the country. In addition, it obliges Parliament to vote on laws on the need for "the presence of the majority of its members" (462 MPs), but without specifying the size of the majority. This is not the first time the constitutional text has been amended. Already in Bouteflika's time it was adapted so that he had unlimited powers and could appoint high-level officials.

Another measure that is expected to come into force with the approval of the text is the abolition and replacement of the "Constitutional Council" by a "Constitutional Court" that monitors the decisions of the three authorities, in an attempt to prevent a repetition of the constitutional void left by Bouteflika's resignation. Although Tebboune has announced that this constitutional reform is being carried out in order to materialise Hirak's protests, jurists and groups of parties and associations linked to the protest movement have called the text a "laboratory constitution" and described the referendum as treasonous.