Algerian election officials on Sunday declared incumbent President Abulmadjid Tebboune the winner of a dubious election with 95 percent of the vote.
Opposition politicians denounced the election as a “farce” and accused Tebboune of stuffing the ballot boxes to avoid a runoff election.
Tebboune actually joined the opposition to complain about election irregularities, noting that the results announced by election officials were significantly different from local vote tallies and far exceeded turnout figures.
According to the Algerian National Independent Election Authority (ANIE), Tebboune won re-election with 94.7 percent of the vote, followed by Islamist Abedlali Hassani Cherif with 3.2 percent and socialist Youcef Aouchiche with 2.2 percent.
Tebboune, 78, was heavily favored to win a second term but he was disappointed with turnout of less than 40 percent in his first election victory and wanted much higher numbers this time, to solidify his shaky governing mandate.
Tebboune was elected following massive pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019 that forced his predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika out of office after two decades in power. As with most of the “Arab Spring” nations, disillusioned Algerians came to feel they had merely replaced one strongman with another.
Once he was ensconced in office, Tebboune cracked down hard on anti-government protests. With the backing of Algeria’s far-too-powerful military, he ensured his re-election race would be a mere formality by disqualifying almost everyone who ran against him.
“The authorities don’t want to hold real elections that can bring about solid change. All the states resources have been dedicated to the president’s campaign,” opposition leader Zubaida Assoul complained after she was disqualified from running in the 2024 election.
“How can we have a fair and democratic election, when journalists and activists go to jail over a social media post? I had to quit a couple of jobs, due to restrictions on freedom of expression,” journalist AbdelWakeel Blam said as the election was ramping up.
Algeria’s young people have become particularly estranged from the political system, feeling their 2019 pro-democracy protests brought very little real change in the end. Youth unemployment is running at over 30 percent in Algeria, with general unemployment around 12 percent, prompting large numbers of economic migrants to try their luck in other countries. Young people make up about half of the voters in Algeria, so their disaffection is a major factor in low election turnout.
Tebboune voters often say they voted for him because he seemed the most likely candidate to keep pension checks and welfare subsidies flowing. European demand for Algerian gas surged after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and Tebboune has been using much of the government’s revenue to fund social programs.
Islamist Hassani Cherif’s campaign called the election a “farce,” accusing election officials of trashing ballots cast for himself and the other opposition candidate, Youcef Aouchiche, in order to pump up Tebboune’s margin of victory. ANIE claimed turnout was 48 percent, which would be dramatically higher than the 2019 election if true.
Hassani’s campaign chief, Ahmed Sadouk, said the election was a “masquerade” and the announced results “tarnish the image of the country.”
“It’s a shame. It’s an attack on the image of Algeria, which will become the laughing stock of nations,” Sadok said.
“We inform public opinion of the ambiguity, contradiction, vagueness and conflicting numbers recorded with the announcement of the provisional results of the presidential elections,” all three campaigns said in a joint statement on Sunday.
