ALGIERS: Algerians voted Sunday on a revised constitution the regime hopes will neutralise a protest movement which at its peak last year swept long-time president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power.
Bouteflika's successor Abdelmadjid Tebboune, currently hospitalised overseas, has pitched the text as meeting the demands of the youth-led Hirak movement, which staged vast demonstrations for more than a year until the coronavirus pandemic shut them down.
The Hirak has called for a boycott of the vote on a text they call a "change of facade", which observers likewise say offers little new.
"Nothing has changed. The ultra-presidential regime will stay," said Massensen Cherbi, a constitutional expert at Sciences Po university in Paris.
Tebboune has placed Sunday's referendum at the forefront of efforts to turn the page on the Hirak, with state media campaigning for a resounding "yes" vote to usher in a "new Algeria".
Supporters of a "no" vote have been banned from holding meetings, and few observers doubt that the text will pass.
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