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Agence France-Presse

Algeria’s incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been re-elected with almost 95 per cent of the vote, the country’s electoral authority ANIE said.
More than 5.3 million people voted for Tebboune, accounting for “94.65 per cent of the vote”, ANIE head Mohamed Charfi told reporters on Sunday.
Tebboune, 78, was heavily favoured to secure a five-year second term in the race against moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani, 57, who took 3.17 per cent of the vote, and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche, 41, who won 2.16 per cent.
While Tebboune’s re-election was certain, his main focus was boosting voter participation in Saturday’s poll after a record abstention rate of over 60 per cent in 2019.

That year, Tebboune became president after widely boycotted elections and mass pro-democracy protests from 2019 that died out under his tenure as policing ramped up and hundreds were put in jail.
More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote, but ANIE didn’t say how many people in total had turned out to cast their ballot on Saturday.
After polling stations closed on Saturday, ANIE announced an “average” turnout rate of 48 per cent, calling the figure “provisional”.
In an unprecedented move, however, all three campaigns – including Tebboune’s – issued a joint statement late Sunday alleging “irregularities” in ANIE’s results, adding they wanted to make the public aware of “vagueness and contradictions in the participation figures”.
Hassani’s campaign had earlier said the turnout figure was “strange” and denounced attempts to “inflate the results”.
It also said it had recorded “instances of proxy group voting”.

In a video posted on Facebook, the campaign’s head, Ahmed Sadouk, said the election results were a “masquerade”, disputing the turnout announced by ANIE.
He said “the results undermine the elections and tarnish the image of the country”.
“The president has been keen to have a significant turnout,” Hasni Abidi, an Algeria analyst at the Geneva-based CERMAM Study Centre, said. “It’s his main issue.”
Tebboune’s win Sunday was “a victory that looks like a warning”, Abidi said, pointing to the incumbent’s failure to win over young people, who represent half of Algeria’s 45-million-strong population.
As a result, Abidi added, the re-elected president has been “weakened”.
All three candidates had courted the youth vote with promises to improve living standards and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons.
After voting in Algiers Saturday morning, Tebboune did not mention turnout, unlike Aouchiche who called for an end to the “boycott” and Hassani who said more voters would make the election “credible”.
Tebboune had touted economic successes during his first term, including more jobs and higher wages in Africa’s largest exporter of natural gas.
Although Algeria’s economy has grown at an annual rate of about four per cent over the past two years, it remains heavily dependent on oil and gas to fund its social programmes.
Tebboune had also pledged to create 450,000 jobs if re-elected.
The president should now address the major deficit in political and media freedoms, with Algerians having “divorced current politics” after the so-called Hirak protests ended, analyst Abidi said.
Amnesty International said earlier last week Algerian authorities were continuing to “stifle civic space by maintaining a severe repression of human rights”.
Five years after the Hirak protest movement, Algeria has seen “new arbitrary arrests”, while authorities maintain “a zero tolerance approach to dissenting opinions”, it said.
Dozens remain behind bars or are still being prosecuted due to their activism, according to prisoners’ rights group CNLD.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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Algerian men celebrate the re-election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Algiers, Algeria on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune prepares to cast his ballot. Photo: Algerian Presidency via EPA-EFE 

Algerian moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani voting on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Algerian moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani votes at a polling station during the presidential election, in Algiers on Saturday. About 24 million Algerians are eligible to vote on September 7, with experts saying incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune faces no real risk to his tenure as he seeks a second term. Photo: AFP

A man shows his voting card at a polling station during the presidential election in Algiers, on September 7, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Algerian civil rights lawyer and president of the “Union for Change and Progress” party Zoubida Assoul brandishes a placard which reads “No to the Vote”, during an anti-government march in the centre of the capital Algiers on November 22, 2019. After successfully ousting long-term president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019, Algeria’s pro-democracy Hirak movement quickly faded. Despite that, experts say it brought about a fresh political awareness that survives as the country readies for presidential elections. Photo: AFP

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News

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Africa

Abdelmadjid Tebboune joins opponents in claiming election irregularities after being named the winner in a landslide


Abdelmadjid Tebboune joins opponents in claiming election irregularities after being named the winner in a landslide.


European Union

Diplomacy

Emmanuel Macron

France