Appointed for a single term of eight years, the president of the Constitutional Council will still be there when organizing presidential elections, unless he resigns. A Constitutional Council presided over by Belaiz will clearly be a hindrance to the holding of credible and fair presidential elections. For example, a normal president who suddenly fell ill and governance is left for a normal government cabinet. But nothing is normal in Algeria today, and the public call for change does not just focus on the president, but on the entire system put in place to maintain status quo. The idea of Bensalah taking over the presidency for that period is not well accepted in the mass movement and in the opposition.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 26, 2019 21:00 UTC