In the joint parliamentary session, broadcast live on Algerian television, a clear majority among the 389 members of the National Assembly and the 144 senators of the upper House of the Parliament, or Council of the Nation, approved the draft submitted in early November by the Council of Ministers. The proposal involved the review of five constitutional articles dealing, respectively, with the following: protection of the national emblem and the national anthem as immutable conquests of the Glorious November Revolution of November 1, 1954 (Article 5); promotion and preservation of the country’s history as the heritage of all Algerians (Article 62); promotion of the political rights of women through better representation in public institutions (Article 31bis); fully enshrining the sovereign right of the people to freely choose its leaders and exercise that right through its established institutions (Article 74); reorganization, clarification, and precision of relations between the components of executive power, including the appointment by the President of the Republic of a Prime Minister possibly supported by one or several Vice-Prime ministers (Article 77), the role of the Prime Minister as Head of the Government in charge of implementing the President’s program (Article 79), and the Prime Minister being accountable to the People’s National Assembly, which may accept or reject the Prime Minister’s Program of Action (Articles 80 and 81).

The proposed amendments relating to the internal organization of executive power shall help further clarify the mission of the Government (implementation of the President’s program) and preserve fully the controlling power of the Parliament over the Government.

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