In a historically low turnout, breaking even the record set by the controversial presidential elections of December 2019, the 2020 referendum on the constitutional amendment in Algeria attracted less than 24% of the electorate. The amendment did pass with 66.8% of voters voting ‘Yes’, but the numbers are far from what the regime desires and certainly nowhere near what it needs to claim any form of legitimacy.
The constitution has long been a tool to solve issues incumbent presidents and their regimes face in Algeria. Whether it was a crisis of legitimacy, a threatening popular movement, or the president simply wished to exercise more powers, there was nothing a constitutional amendment could not fix. Or so it seemed.
Tebboune’s constitutional amendment of 2020 is no different from its predecessors’. Talk of such an amendment came on quite early and made up a big part of Tebboune’s presidential campaign, and in fact, that of other presidential candidates.
