Algeria’s silent coup

Bouteflika, winner of the WWCC (world worst comb-over competition), is trying to fool people with his “Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation”.

The referendum called by Algeria’s President, instead of smoothing the way for national reconciliation, is the equivalent of an institutional coup. Without the knowledge of the voting public (only the title of the charter will be shown to voters), a yes vote would in fact give Bouteflika dictatorial powers, sidestepping Parliament and Constitutional Court, to rule by decree and curtail all liberties by claiming that this charter is a people's mandate. Once Parliament has been by-passed, he could do as he pleases, including extending his mandate indefinitely.

Furthermore the Charter, under the pretext of the proposed amnesty, aims at sweeping under the carpet the atrocities and excesses committed by state agents during the civil war and preventing other crimes from being investigated.

Links: Daily Star, Il Foglio, Adnki

Algeria, Bouteflika