Ouyahia: We All Support A Third Term for Bouteflika

El Khabar's headline (above) speaks for itself. Ouyahia's decisive words, spoken at a meeting with regional RND representatives in the party centre in Ben-Aknoun, put an end to the scurrilous rumor that he was fired for (reactionarily) thinking two terms was long enough:

He [Ouyahia] clarified that, if the intent of the amendment was to allow the President a third term, then "we all support that."

After all:

"I am personally proud to have had the honor to know Bouteflika for 20 years... and I feel proud to have been fortunate enough to enjoy Bouteflika's respect."

Meanwhile, Belkhadem has announced that draft suggestions on amending the constitution will be sent to President Bouteflika, "the only person with the power to define the way and the date of the constitution amendment", on 15 June.

In the interests of confusion, I note that El Watan, reporting on the same conference, says Ouyahia opposes the idea of changing the constitution. The quotes they provide, however, don't refer to the presidential term increase, and merely suggest a certain indifference: "The FLN has the right to consider and suggest proposals to amend it. But its proposal does not interest us."

On an irrelevant linguistic note, I notice that the El Khabar article - rather unusually - sporadically quotes Ouyahia in Darja: ''أنا جئت ورحت ووليت·· أعرف جيدا الطريق كيفاش أنجي وكيفاش أنروح''. ("I came, I went, and I came back... I well know the road of how to come and go.") I wonder why - did the author intend to make him look stupid, to make him seem down-to-earth, or simply to more accurately represent his speech?