ALGIERS- The members of the People’s National Assembly (Lower House) have adopted Monday the bill fixing the list of State senior positions to which access requires holding the Algerian nationality only.
The voting session which has been boycotted by the deputies of the Socialist Forces Front was chaired by Speaker Mohamed Larbi Ould Khelifa, and attended by Justice Minister Tayeb Louh and Minister for the Relations with the Parliament, Ghania Eddalia.
The deputies have proposed 14 amendments providing for the extension of the list of the positionsrequiring exclusive Algerian nationality to the members of the two Houses of the Parliament (APN and the Council of the Nation), the magistrates, the governors, the ambassadors, the heads of the constitutional instances and the General Manager of Customs.
Following the consideration of the amendments, the People’s National Assembly Commission for legal, administrative and freedom affairs found that some of them are included in the bill while others do not fit with its spirit.
After the vote, the minister of Justice said that the bill one of the new bills resulting from the recent Constitution revision and “responds to the concerns” repeatedly expressed by the Algerian people with regard to the need to “entrust high positions in the State with people holding other nationalities in addition the Algerian one.”
The bill fixing the list of the State high positionsrequiring exclusive Algerian nationality complies with the principles consolidated in the Constitution in terms of access to senior officials of the State, notably the principle of equality, said the minister.
Thus, the minister renewed that the bill doesn’t exclude Algerians, either inside or outside the country. It only compels them to comply with the bills given the ” sensitive nature of the senior positions of the State and their link with the national sovereignty.”
The Article 2 of the bill defines the concerned positions, namely the Chairman of the Council of the Nation (Upper House), the Speaker of the People’s National Assembly (Lower House-APN), the Prime Minister, the President of the Constitutional Council, the members of the Government, the General Secretary of the Government, the First President of the Supreme Court and the President of State Council.
The positions which are also covered by the bill are the Governor of the Bank of Algeria, the Heads of Security Forces, the President of the High Independent Instance for Elections Monitoring, the Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army, the Commanders of the Armed Forces, the Commanders of the Military Regions and the high military positions determined by regulations.
Source: Lower House passes bill on State senior positions requiring exclusive Algerian nationality
