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Do you agree with the draft Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation that has been proposed to you? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Contents |
 Algeriaportal |
The 2005 Algerian national reconciliation referendum took place in Algeria on 29 September 2005. The referendum was held on a Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation which had been drawn up to try to bring closure to the Algerian Civil War. The official results showed an overwhelming vote in favour on a high turnout.
The Algerian Civil War, which had begun in 1991 after the military cancelled the 1991 National Assembly elections to prevent Islamists from winning, had led to at least 150,000 people dying by 2005. Since the late 1990s violence had been declining and the government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika began drawing up plans for an amnesty for both members of the military and Islamists. [1]
The Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation that was produced would offer an amnesty to anyone who had taken part in the civil war unless they had taken part in rapes, mass murders or public bombings. [2] The charter removed any blame to the state for the events of the civil war and prevented any leaders of the Islamist rebels from re-entering politics in Algeria. [3] It also provided for compensation to be given to the families of the dead and those who disappeared during the civil war. [2]
The question voted on in the referendum was:
Are you for or against the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation project that the government has proposed? [4]
President Bouteflika personally led the campaign in favour of the charter and for several weeks before the referendum he travelled across Algeria to campaign for a yes vote. [5] The government said that there was no alternative to the charter and used the slogan "From concord to national reconciliation. For Algeria". [4] Public enthusiasm for the charter was not much evident during the campaign but there was support as people saw the referendum as a chance to bring the long conflict to a conclusion. [6]
Opponents, including some opposition parties, said that the charter would prevent people from obtaining justice as it would not hold those who committed crimes accountable for them. [7] There was a call for a boycott and opponents described it as just giving more legitimacy to the government and president. However no opposition groups were allowed to get their point of view on national television or radio stations during the campaign. [8]
On the day of the referendum there was violence in the eastern regions of Algeria and particularly Kabylie province where turnout was much lower than in the rest of the country. [9] Turnout varied widely with Tizi Ouzou Province seeing a turnout of only a little over 11%, [9] while in Khenchela official figures showed a 99.95% turnout. [10]
The government described the official results as having given "real backing for the president's project". [11] However critics, such as human rights groups, said that the official turnout figures were completely overstated, with polling stations in and around Algiers seeing little evidence of a large turnout. [11]
| Electorate | Spoilt votes | Turnout (%) | For (%) | Against (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18,313,594 | 171,507 | 14,435,291 (79.76) | 14,054,164(97.36) | 381,127 (2.64) |
| Source: IFES Election Guide | ||||
Abdelaziz Bouteflika was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as the seventh president of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 2019.
Ahmed Ouyahia is an Algerian politician who was prime minister of Algeria four times. A career diplomat, he also served as Minister of Justice, and he was one of the founders of the Democratic National Rally (RND) as well as the party's secretary-general. He is considered by Western observers to be close to the military of Algeria and a member of the "eradicator" faction in the 1990s civil war against Islamist militants. Ouyahia resigned as prime minister in March 2019 following President Bouteflika's announcement that he would not seek reelection, and Ouyahia was arrested in June 2019 for crimes related to corruption. He was later convicted and is currently serving 19 years in jail.
The Movement of Society for Peace, sometimes known by its shortened form Hamas, is a Sunni Islamist party in Algeria, led by Mahfoud Nahnah until his death in 2003. Its current leader is Abderrazak Makri. It is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Louisa Hanoune is the head of Algeria's Workers' Party. In 2004, she became the first woman to run for President of Algeria. Hanoune was imprisoned by the government several times prior to the legalization of political parties in 1988. She was jailed soon after she joined the Trotskyist Social Workers Organisation, an illegal party, in 1981 and again after the 1988 October Riots, which brought about the end of the National Liberation Front's (FLN) single-party rule. During Algeria's civil war of the 1990s, Hanoune was one of the few opposition voices in parliament, and, despite her party's laicist values, a strong opponent of the government's "eradication" policy toward Islamists. In January 1995, she signed the Sant'Egidio Platform together with representatives of other opposition parties, notably the Islamic Salvation Front, the radical Islamist party whose dissolution by military decree brought about the start of the civil war.
Algeria elects on the national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. People's National Assembly has 407 members, elected for a five-year term in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation. Eight seats in the national assembly are reserved for Algerians abroad. The Council of the Nation has 144 members, 96 members elected by communal councils and 48 members appointed by the president.
The Algerian Civil War, known in Algeria as the Black Decade, was a civil war fought between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups from 11 January 1992 to 8 February 2002. The war began slowly, as it initially appeared the government had successfully crushed the Islamist movement, but armed groups emerged to declare jihad and by 1994, violence had reached such a level that it appeared the government might not be able to withstand it. By 1996–97, it had become clear that the Islamist resistance had lost its popular support, although fighting continued for several years after.
The Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation was a charter proposed by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in an attempt to bring closure to the Algerian Civil War by offering an amnesty for most violence committed in it. The referendum on it was held on September 29, 2005, passing with 97%, and the charter was implemented as law on February 28, 2006.
Abdelhak Layada, also known as Abu Adlane, is one of the founders of Algeria's militant Islamist group Armed Islamic Group (GIA) during the Algerian Civil War. He led the group after the death of Mohamed Allel.
In the politics of Algeria, Les éradicateurs are a faction within the Algerian political and military establishment during that country's civil war, which from 1992 pitted Islamist rebels against a military-installed government.
Parliamentary elections were held in Algeria on 30 May 2002 to elect members of the People's National Assembly. The governing National Liberation Front (FLN) won a majority of seats in the election. The election suffered from a low turnout, violence and boycotts by some opposition parties.
The 2000s in Algeria emerged from the 'Black Decade' of the 1990s. The 'Black Decade' was characterised by a civil war beginning in 1991 and ending at the beginning of the following decade in 2002. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is accredited with ending the civil war, continued to be in power throughout the 2000s following his election in 1999. Despite being in power for 20 years and being Algeria's longest running president, Bouteflika's politics have been widely opposed and contested, with accusations from the BBC “of widespread corruption and state repression”. In April 2019 Bouteflika officially resigned from his position as president after months of public protest and loss of the army's support. The 82 Year old President was widely considered unfit for the role after experiencing a stroke in 2013. His resignation was reported by the BBC to have been met with "huge celebrations".
Presidential elections were held in Algeria on 15 April 1999. Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected with 74% of the vote after the other six candidates withdrew on the eve of the elections.
A constitutional referendum was held in Armenia on 27 November 2005. The referendum was on a series of changes to the constitution of Armenia which were backed by the international community. The official results had a high turnout and overwhelming support for the changes. However the opposition and election monitors said that there were serious irregularities with the referendum.
A constitutional referendum was held in Egypt on 25 May 2005. Voters were asked to approve or reject an amendment to the constitution that would introduce direct elections for the presidency. Opposition parties called for a boycott of the vote, which was passed by a large majority.
A constitutional referendum was held in Kenya on 4 August 2010. Voters were asked whether they approved of a proposed new constitution, which had been passed by the National Assembly on 1 April 2010. The new constitution was seen as a vital step to avoid a repetition of the violent outbursts after the 2007 general elections.
A referendum on the Civil Concord Law was held in Algeria on 16 September 1999. The Civil Concord Law was an amnesty law that provided the legal framework to implement the 1995 "rahma" law promulgated by former President Liamine Zeroual. It was put forth by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and adopted by parliament on 8 July 1999. The purpose of the law was to end the Algerian Civil War, and its most important element was its establishment of a system of clemency for Islamist fighters. The law was approved by 98% of voters with an 85% turnout. One factor contributing to the high level of support received by the referendum is the lack of guidance that opposition parties gave to their supporters, not wanting to appear to be voting "against peace."
Parliamentary elections were held in Algeria on 10 May 2012. The incumbent coalition, consisting of the National Liberation Front (FLN) of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the National Rally for Democracy (RND) of Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, held on to power after winning a majority of seats. The Islamist parties of the Green Algeria Alliance lost seats.
Presidential elections were held in Algeria on 17 April 2014. Incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was re-elected with 82% of the vote. Issues in the campaign included a desire for domestic stability after the bloody civil war of the 1990s, the state of the economy, the frail health of 77-year-old president Abdelaziz Bouteflika who had been in power for fifteen years, and whose speech was "slurred and inaudible" in his only public outing during the campaign, and the less-than-wholehearted support given the president by the normally united and discrete ruling class.
The Ad Hoc Inquiry Commission in Charge of the Question of Disappearances was a truth commission created in 2003 to investigate the forced disappearance of people during civil conflict. Its creation took place after the election of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who then set up a National Human Rights Institution. Thereafter, the Commission was set up in order to give people the truth about what happened in the 1990s. However, its report was not made public and consequently, Algerians are not aware of the fate of their relatives.
A constitutional referendum was held in Algeria on 1 November 2020. The subject of the referendum was a revision of the Algerian constitution, and it follows a series of protests known as Hirak.
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