The referendum on whether or not to adopt the new constitution took place on Sunday. The result is clear: though the yes won at 66.8%, the weakness of the 23.7% participation, casts doubt on its legitimacy.
The position of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, currently hospitalized in Germany, is undoubtedly weakened. Among the political forces, the Islamists of the Mouvement de la société pour la paix (MSP), called for voting no to the revised Constitution, while most of the forces that make up the “Hirak” which led to the overthrow of President Bouteflika had opted for abstention.
The majority of the population has therefore clearly chosen not to speak out, remaining in the line of a "let them all clear off" which so far has not opened up the prospect of real political change. The legislative elections that are due to follow will be an important indicator of political developments in Algeria and of whether or not progressive forces have the capacity to subscribe to a strategy of change other than "the clear off attitude".
The government’s will for constitutional change is not simply a cosmetic grooming of the old constitution which was the outcome of choices integrating Algeria into the process of capitalist globalization. As Algerian economist Abdelatif Rebah writes in a recent publication:
voir aussi son interview): ici.
"These institutional changes must crown the process of political re-composition set in motion with the election, on December 12, 2019, of a new President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and the formation of a new government, in office since the beginning of this year.
How to interpret this process? What is its real scope?
Does it augur the advent of a new Algeria, as its promoters proclaim it, or is it a simple redistribution of political power which maintains the status quo ante, as is constantly being hammered out by one of the components of the "hirak", the most prominent, which demands "... a real democratic transition to a rule of law and pluralist democracy"?
Moreover, will the questioning of the parasitic and predatory sociopolitical order of hated Abdelaziz Bouteflika entail that of its structural foundation, the economic and social order which has created and nourished it, and doctrinal choices which legitimized it”?
Until now, the constitutional changes marking each new presidency, have accompanied and reinforced policies favorable to the liquidation of the popular gains of the Algerian revolution for the benefit of the forces of capital. Nothing indicates that, even under the guise of democratization, although the project strengthens presidential power, it is not the same today. All of this in a context of a considerable weakening of the productive economy in favor of a market artificially maintained by oil rents and at the origin of parasitic activities where significant corruption is concealed. This weakening of productive social forces makes the emergence of a revolutionary current that has been suppressed for decades complex and difficult. The work of the Algerian communists to analyze the situation and organize the political struggle is therefore even of greater value. We owe them unfailing internationalist support!