An institutional crisis sparked the 1976 revision of Algeria’s constitution. The incumbent president had claimed power in 1965 after a coup against his predecessors. He had governed by decree for eleven years. Politicians and intellectuals (in France as well as Algeria) had started to protest that the regime was corrupt, autocratic, and inegalitarian.
The constitution provided for the restoration of the national assembly, which had been suspended since the 1965 cou, and reaffirmed the election of the President by direct and universal suffrage. The text reasserted socialism as the Algerian people’s “irreversible choice” and confirmed the socialist party’s status as the single legitimate party. On December 29, 1976, the President issued an executive order specifying principles and procedures for electing the Assembly. In February 1977, nearly three quarters of voters elected 261 of the 783 single party candidates to the legislature.
The new constitution did not end public protest, although open dissent diminished. Many later complained that the amendments did not effect major shifts in how power was wielded. Political authority remained centralized in the hands of the Revolutionary Council, which was headed by the president and his closest friends. Despite ruling party efforts to win favor among Algerians in Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Paris, opposition continued to be particularly strong in major urban centers.