By Bill Maclean ALGIERS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Algerian opposition parties on Thursday attacked a plan by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to change the constitution as a trick to stay in power, but allies said it would boost democracy in Africa's third biggest economy. The 71-year-old leader of the OPEC member state, reaching the end of his second and final term, said on Wednesday he wanted to alter the basic law to strengthen the people's power to choose their leaders, although he did not explain further. Independent newspapers were in no doubt that Bouteflika intends to lift the two-term limit on the presidency and then stand for a third term, a move that could see him extend his rule of the north African Arab country until 2014. "Third term -- Here we go," wrote Le Quotidien d'Oran. El Watan's headed its front page: "The third mandate takes shape." "Why change a winning team?" asked government newspaper El Moudjahid, saying Bouteflika was responding to what it called a popular demand for lifting of the two-term presidential limit. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said in published remarks that the amendment would probably be enacted by parliament and the senate before the end of November, ahead of a presidential election expected in April 2009. Some critics say such a move would be a blow to the fragile political climate in the country of 34 million, still searching for stability after an undeclared civil war in the 1990s in which more than 150,000 people were killed. The secular opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy party said in a statement published in newspapers: "President Bouteflika wants to be a president for life, which indicates a willingness to make slaves of all Algerians." FACTIONS, CLANS, INTRIGUES The Socialist Forces Front, the main political force in the northeastern Berber-speaking Kabylie region, said it opposed "this strategy of monopolising, of putsch, of neutralisation and political and moral regression." "The country is governed far from any political norm. The same factions exchange power like clans, using police-style intrigues and armed violence." Bouteflika is widely credited for helping stabilise a traumatised society after the 1990s bloodshed and ending the long isolation of the oil and gas exporter on the world stage. Algeria plunged into violence in 1992 after an army-backed government scrapped legislative elections which the Islamic Salvation Front, a radical Islamist party, was poised to win. But critics say Bouteflika has failed to diversify the oil-dependent economy, significantly reduce unemployment, or quash a lingering Islamist rebellion. Periodic suicide bomb attacks by Algerian militants who proclaim loyalty to al Qaeda have worsened a national mood of gloom and raised fears for regional stability. But Abdelaziz Belkhadem, Secretary-General of Bouteflika's National Liberation Front, said the planned amendment was necessary "to deepen the practice of democracy, and clarify relations between institutions and the various power centres." (Editing by Sami Aboudi)
Algeria's Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia speaks during a news conference in Algiers after his visit to the flood affected region of Ghardaia October 7, 2008. REUTERS/Louafi Larbi (ALGERIA) ...
