Algeria referendum: A vote to halt protest movement
Polls opened in Algeria on Sunday for a vote on a revised constitution the regime hopes will neutralize a protest movement which at its peak last year swept long-time President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power.
Bouteflika’s successor Abdelmadjid Tebboune, currently hospitalized overseas, has pitched the text as meeting the demands of the Hirak, a youth-led movement that staged vast weekly demonstrations for more than a year until the coronavirus pandemic stopped rallies.
But despite a determined government media campaign for a resounding “yes” vote to usher in a “new Algeria,” observers say the document offers little new. “Nothing has changed. The ultra-presidential regime will stay,” said Massena’s Cherbi, a constitutional expert at Sciences Po university in Paris.
Tebboune has placed Sunday’s referendum at the forefront of efforts to turn the page on the Hirak movement.
And after a campaign that saw the “yes” camp dominate state-backed media coverage and supporters of a “no” vote banned from holding meetings, few observers doubt that the text will pass.
“I voted ‘yes’ so my country doesn’t collapse,” said Djillali Bouazza, a 78-year-old retiree.
The key question is how many people will vote.
Tebboune said Saturday that Algerians will once again “have a rendezvous with history” to bring in a “new era capable of fulfilling the hopes of the nation and the aspirations of our people for a strong, modern and democratic state.”
The 74-year-old president is hospitalized in Germany amid reports of COVID-19 cases among his staff, and few details have been released on his condition.
Seen by opponents as an old-school regime insider, Tebboune came to power following a December 2019 presidential poll
marred by record abstentionism. The Hirak movement led calls for a boycott of that election, and even official data put the turnout at less than 40 percent.
Experts say the referendum is partly a bid by Tebboune for a more convincing validation at the ballot box.
Rather than attacking the Hirak, Tebboune has ostensibly reached out to it, describing it as a “blessed, authentic popular movement” and arguing that the revised constitution meets its demands.
But despite his conciliatory language, many observers are skeptical, especially given how the document was written.
“The drafting and consultation process was highly controlled by the state,” said Zaid Al-Ali, a senior adviser on constitution building at International Idea. “It’s hard to argue that the Hirak’s demands for a fully inclusive debate on the state’s constitution was respected.” And while the new text lists purported guarantees of social and economic rights, Ali says these promises are hollow.
“The constitution’s social and economic rights are not directly enforceable, which means that they are only aspirational,” he said.