Algeria ... on a date with the constitutional amendments today "in the absence of its president."

Algerians are voting today on a constitutional amendment that is supposed to establish a new phase at the initiative of President Abdel Majid Tebboune, who is seeking to turn the page on the movement that opposed the elections that brought him.

The referendum is taking place in the absence of President Abdel Majid Tebboune, who is 74 years old, after he was transferred to Germany last Wednesday evening for medical examinations, after it was suspected that people from his surroundings were infected with the coronavirus.

Abdel Majid Tebboune said that the Algerian people will once again be on a date with history for the desired real change, through the referendum on the draft amendment of the constitution, to establish a new era that fulfills the people's hopes and aspirations for a strong, modern and democratic state.

Since he was sworn in as president on December 19, Tebboune pledged to amend the 1996 constitution by extending his hand to what he described as "the blessed movement."

But some activists rejected the proposed text in form and content, and said that it only represented a change in the façade, while the street demanded a change in the regime, so they called for a boycott of the referendum.

The official slogan for the referendum in President Tebboune's election campaign is "November 1954: Liberation - November 2020: Change".

The date for the referendum was chosen to coincide with the Revolution Day on 1 November, and the anniversary of the War of Independence against French colonialism (1954-1962).

T/S

ANHA