The campaign for the referendum on the revision of the Constitution in Algeria ended on Wednesday without having aroused the enthusiasm of the Algerians. If this revision includes democratic advances, it also arouses the mistrust of part of the population in a context of strong repression of journalists and figures of the “Hirak”.
For or against a revision of the Constitution: nearly 25 million voters are asked to vote on Sunday, 1 st November on a constitutional amendment intended to establish a “New Republic” and meet the aspirations of popular protest “Hirak”.
The reform was proposed by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, of whom it was an electoral promise and who described it as “the cornerstone of the new Algeria”. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, hospitalized in a military establishment in Algiers after suspected cases of Covid-19 in his entourage at the age of 74, was transferred to Germany for medical examinations on Wednesday evening.
In some areas of Algiers, many election signs remained empty, while posters were torn from others.
The three weeks of campaigning took place almost in one direction: only supporters of the “yes” were able to express themselves widely in the official media.
In recent days, the government, headed by Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad, has worked hard by organizing meetings and other “meetings with civil society” to defend the constitutional amendment.
“Wanted by President Tebboune as the basis of his social project for the ‘new Algeria’, the holding of the referendum does not seem to arouse the support and enthusiasm of Algerians, as the campaign attests. The electoral campaign which did not keep the promises made by the authorities to make it a framework for democratic debate and broad popular mobilization, an electoral celebration.
A symbolic date
The new Basic Law, while emphasizing a series of rights and freedoms intended to satisfy the demands of the “Hirak”, maintains a presidential regime and authorizes possible army missions abroad.
The unprecedented uprising, peaceful and without real leadership, the “Hirak” was born in February 2019 from an immense fed up of the Algerians, who demand a profound change of the “system” in place since 1962. In vain so far, even if he snatched the departure of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019.
The date of the referendum, the 1 st of November, is highly symbolic. It marks the anniversary of the start of the War of Independence against the French colonial power (1954-1962).
“November 1954: liberation, November 2020: change,” promises the official slogan of the campaign which ended at midnight on Wednesday.
In a climate of repression, opponents, from Islamists to the far left, including human rights defenders, denounce a project aimed at burying the “Hirak” for some and at constitutionalizing secularism for others.
