CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE 239. The entanglement of the executive and legislative powers is to be noted: the particularly wide constitutional delimitation of the legislative powers of the APN; interference in the regulatory authority of the executive; and imbalance of powers in favour of the head of government to the detriment of the President, who is nonetheless elected by the nation. This points to the need for constitutional amendment to remedy the situation. ii. Findings of the CRM 240. As far as the independence of the judiciary is concerned, the CRM notes the will of the constituent assembly to enshrine and guarantee the independence of the judicial authorities formally. All the formal guarantees of these powers are, in effect, enshrined in the Constitution. Nonetheless, the President of the Republic who presides over the Executive also presides over the Higher Council of the Magistracy, which is the body guaranteeing the independence of the judicial system and governing the careers of judges. This could prove to be both ambiguous and restrictive in relation to the judicial power. 241. This is borne out by the fact that the tenure of judges is only relative and there is no marked difference in the functions of the prosecutor‟s office and the bench, or between those of the investigative judge and the examining judge, and even less between those of the administrative judge and the judicial judge. The transition from one function to the other and from one jurisdiction to the other occurs at the instance of appointments by the President of the Republic, on the recommendation of the Higher Council of the Magistracy over which he presides, and the deputy presidency of which is assured by the Minister of Justice, who is the guardian of the seals and is completely separate from the government. 242. It is noteworthy, on another aspect, that magistrates in Algeria enjoy the right to unionise, various financial guarantees and an ensured independence and are subject to reviews by their peers. The Code of Ethics for magistrates promulgated by the Higher Council of the Magistracy (Official Gazette 17 of 2007) compels magistrates to declare their assets at each promotion, as well as every five years. They are also prevented from belonging to any political party. This guarantees the ethical requirements and the will to combat corruption within the judicial system. 243. Although the statutory guarantees for a judge are considerable, it is still true that there is continued criticism of the allegiance of a large number of judges to the government in the handling of sensitive cases. This is borne out by the February 2007 opinion survey, according to which only 5.8 per cent of those surveyed considered the degree of independence of the judiciary to be very high, 19.4 per cent considered it high, 37.6 per cent average, 26.0 per cent insufficient and 11.2 per cent completely inadequate. In other words, over half of the respondents have a negative opinion of the independence of the judiciary in their country. Opinions vary quite significantly as regards access 86