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The former President of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been named the winner of Algeria’s presidential election, clinching him yet another term to lead the gas-rich North African nation an additional five years after the pro-democracy protests led to the ouster of his predecessor.
In a result that had baffled a few observers internationally or in Algeria, the country’s independent election authority had on Sunday announced that Tebboune had won more than 94% of the vote which also means that he outpaced his challengers Islamist Abdelali Hassani Cherif, who won 3% and socialist Youcef Aouchiche, who won 2.1%.
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Less than six million of the country’s 24 million voters cast ballots on Saturday, perpetuating the low voter turnout that marred Tebboune’s first term and raised questions about his popularity.
Algeria holds the title of being Africa’s biggest country in terms of land area. It is also the continent’s second most populous nation, with nearly 45 million inhabitants, after South Africa. In 2024, presidential elections will take place in Algeria, which is the same year when over 50 elections will be held globally, involving more than half of the world’s population.
Throughout the campaign, activists and international organizations, including Amnesty International, railed against the campaign season’s repressive atmosphere and the harassment and prosecutions of those involved in opposition parties, media organizations and civil society groups. Some denounced this election as a rubber stamp exercise that can only entrench the status quo.
But Tebboune and his two challengers each urged political participation and specifically made overtures to the Algerian youth, who make up a majority of the population and disproportionately suffer from poverty and unemployment.
Hassani Cherif’s campaign said polling station officials had been pressured to inflate results and alleged failures to deliver vote-sorting records to candidates’ representatives, as well as instances of proxy group voting. It did not say whether it believed the violations had affected the result.
When the results were announced, Charfi, the head of the electoral commission, stated that the organization had made efforts to guarantee transparency and equitable competition among all the candidates.
In the early hours of the day, ANIE had announced an “average turnout” rate of 48 percent, calling it “provisional”, but it did not give a breakdown of the number of voters against those initially registered.
