Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika recently promised to support reforms during the parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
"I am glad that the forthcoming legislative elections will be contested by an unprecedented number of new parties and that new legal arrangements for independent candidates are in place," he said on Monday (December 19th) during a cabinet meeting.
Algeria cannot remain untouched by the "Arab Spring", Bouteflika acknowledged during a visit to Laghouat on Wednesday (December 14th).
He said, "Arab Muslim nations have experienced serious unrest and Algeria is naturally affected by the events and developments going on around it." The new Assembly’s first job will be to rule on the constitutional reforms promised by the Algerian president. President Bouteflika’s announcement has drawn varied reaction from politicians.
The National Democratic Rally (RND), a member of the presidential coalition, is satisfied with the outcome of the latest cabinet meeting, according to party spokesman Miloud Chorfi.
These outcome "crowned" the reform plans to which the party has subscribed out of a "deep-rooted belief in strengthening the democratic process", Chorfi said.
The National Liberation Front (FLN), which holds a majority in the current parliament, has taken a reassuring tone despite the internal crisis that it has experienced over the past few months.
"There will be no Islamist tidal wave in the legislative elections. They will not win more than 35% of the vote," said FLN Secretary-General Abdelaziz Belkhadem. "By contrast with the other Arab countries where the Islamists were banned from politics, in our country, the Islamists are both in government and represented in parliament."
nevertheless, Abdelmadjid Menasra, the president of the National Front for Change (FCN), has called on Bouteflika to appoint a "neutral government" in readiness for the presidential elections. The FCN has not yet been approved.
In the reforms proposed, it was suggested that the ministers running in the legislative elections should resign from their posts three months beforehand. This proposal was rejected by the MPs in the presidential coalition."Our appeal is directed toward those who want to bring about change, not those associated with the presidential coalition," said Abdelmadjid Menasra, a former member of the Movement for a Society of Peace (MSP), an Islamist party who appealed to opposition parties to co-ordinate their efforts.
The decisions adopted during the last cabinet meeting "will not bring anything new", said MPS chairman Bouguerra Soltani.
"The president has repeatedly called on the government to ensure that the elections are transparent, but the problem is the government, which has a habit of deciding the results of elections as if they were its private property," he said.
"President Bouteflika’s words are reassuring, but we want to see them put into practice through the approval of new parties to enable them to prepare for the legislative elections," said Abdellah Djaballah, the head of the Party of Justice and Development (PJD), which has not yet been approved.