PHOTO: Reuters. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, April 28, 2014
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has submitted a resignation on April 2, 2019 after a two-decade rule. The ailing 82-year-old President has been facing mounting pressure to step down following six weeks of nationwide protests.
After Algeria’s army Chief of Staff called for an immediate constitutional procedure to remove Bouteflika from office, President Bouteflika submitted his resignation and wrote in a letter, “I have taken this step because I am keen to put an end to the current bickering.” He added, “I have taken suitable measures needed for the continuity of the nation’s institutions during the interim period.”
Thousands of Algerians have been protesting since February after Bouteflika announced he would be standing for a fifth term in an election scheduled for April 18. He then reversed his decision to run for reelection and instead postponed the election, which further angered the protestors.
Algeria has been ruled by the National Liberation Front (FLN) party since the country won independence from France in 1962 after seven years of conflict. Bouteflika came to power in 1999 and established himself by ending a civil war with Islamist militants that killed around 200,000 people.
According to article 102 of the Algerian Constitution, the Constitutional Court needs to declare the presidency vacant, which then needs to be approved and upheld by both the People’s National Assembly (lower house) and Council of the Nation (upper house). Once the vacancy is approved by the bicameral legislature, Speaker of Council of the Nation – currently Abdelkader Bensalah, 77 years old – would act as interim leader for up to 90 days. A presidential election will take place at the end of the 90 days.
PHOTO: Xinhua. Mongolian Parliament Speaker Gombojav Zandanshatar.
Mongolian Parliament Speaker Gombojav Zandanshatar met with Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Ambassador to Mongolia O Sung Ho on April 2, 2019.
During the meeting, Speaker Zandanshatar said that Mongolia is keen to strengthen parliamentary cooperation with DPRK.
“The Mongolian parliament will pay special attention to further developing traditional friendly relations between our two countries,” said Zandanshatar. “We are willing to further enhance parliamentary cooperation with the DPRK.
In an effort to expand parliamentary cooperation between the two countries, the Speaker made a proposal on co-organizing a parliamentary session of the regional countries in Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia, at any time under the theme of promoting regional peace and stability by pushing forward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The DPRK ambassador replied that “the DPRK attaches great importance to DPRK-Mongolia relations. A further expansion of friendly relations and cooperation between our two countries is a foreign policy priority for the DPRK.”
PHOTO: BelTA. Speaker Mikhail Myasnikovich.
Chairman of the council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich outlined a new lawmaking guideline in his statement to the National Assembly on April 2.
He said that in the course of preparing bills, additional documents must be considered so that general public opinion and direct feedback from the grassroots level can be better reflected into legislation.
“It will be necessary to thoroughly analyze not only provisions of the bill but study and compare the bill's additional documents. Their comprehensive review will allow properly forecasting the transformation of public relations, adequately building the substantial part of the law, and fixing drawbacks of its legal constructs,” Mikhail Myasnikovich noted.
He added that serious work will be done to further improve legislation so that it contains norms, while parliamentarians should enable oversight over the development of enactments in strict compliance with the law.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)
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