ALGIERS – Algerians have approved constitutional reforms in a referendum, though with a record-low turnout, the country’s constitutional council announced yesterday as it handed down the definitive result of this month’s vote.
The referendum on November 1 was widely seen as a regime manoeuvre to neutralise the Hirak protest movement, which called for a boycott of the plebiscite.
The referendum text was passed with 66.8% of votes cast, said council president Kamel Fenniche on public television.
He welcomed a “transparent” vote “held under good conditions”.
However the 23.8% turnout is a record low for a major vote in Algeria, with fewer than 15% of eligible voters endorsing the constitutional document, a key project of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The 74-year-old has been hospitalised in Germany since October 28 after contracting Covid-19.
His health is improving, according to the last presidential statement dated Sunday.
Tebboune himself took office last December after an election with a turnout of just under 40%, the lowest in a presidential vote since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962.
That followed months of Hirak protests calling for a full overhaul of the nation’s ruling system.
The president’s enforced absence has plunged one of the largest countries in Africa into a period of uncertainty as the pandemic spreads, adding to the growing threats of financial and socio-economic crises.
The reform of the constitution has been trumpeted as the cornerstone of “new Algeria”. – AFP, November 13, 2020
