Algeria.. Tebboune heads to decide presidential elections with a landslide victory in the first round

The preliminary vote count for Algeria's early presidential elections, which took place on Saturday, confirmed that current President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is heading to win a second term and secure a landslide victory in the first round.

Images of the sorting process after the end of the voting process were broadcast by local television channels from polling stations in the states of Djelfa, Bejaia, Medea, Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Batna and Algiers, showing a clear lead for Tebboune, at the expense of his rivals Abdelali Hassani Cherif, head of the Movement for a Peaceful Society, which is affiliated with the Brotherhood movement, and Youssef Ouchich, first secretary of the Socialist Forces Front, the oldest opposition party.

Polling stations closed at 8pm after the National Independent Election Authority decided to extend them by one hour, after they were supposed to close at 7pm.

The voting rate at 5 pm reached 26.45% domestically, compared to 18.31% for the Algerian community residing abroad.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. (7:00 GMT) to choose a president for a five-year term.
23 million, 486 thousand and 61 registered voters inside Algeria were called to vote in these elections, while voters outside the country began voting last Monday, and their number reached 865 thousand and 490, and they continue voting today.

The number of voters inside and outside the country thus amounts to 24 million, 351 thousand, and 551 voters, according to data from the Independent National Elections Authority (a constitutional body).

The head of the Independent National Election Authority, Mohamed Charfi, announced that the participation rate reached, by 10:00 a.m., 4.56 percent in the homeland and 14.56 percent abroad, according to the first official estimate.

He went on to say that the participation rate reached 13.11 percent by 1:00 p.m. Algerian time inside the country. The rate abroad reached 16.18 percent.

The current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the head of the Movement for a Peaceful Society (the largest Islamist party affiliated with the Brotherhood), Abdelali Hassani Cherif, and the first secretary of the leftist Socialist Forces Front (the oldest opposition party based in the Kabylie region), Youssef Ouchich, are competing in the elections.

Without explanation, the presidency announced last March that Tebboune had decided to hold early presidential elections in September, instead of the scheduled date of December 2024.

Later, Tebboune, who won his first presidential term in December 2019, said that the early election was for “technical reasons,” without providing further details.

Tebboune, who is running as an independent, chose the slogan “For a victorious Algeria,” and pro-government parties, such as the National Liberation Front (formerly ruling), the National Democratic Rally, the Independent Front, and the National Construction Movement (Islamist), announced their support for him.

Meanwhile, candidate Abdelali Hassani Sharif (57 years old), a public works engineer, chose “Opportunity” as the slogan for his campaign.

As for the former journalist and head of the Socialist Forces Front party, Youssef Ouchich (41 years old), he settled on the phrase “vision.”

This is the second presidential election to be held under the full supervision of an independent electoral authority after the 2019 elections, after they were under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior and with less powers for the Independent High Authority for Election Monitoring.

Tebboune: Algeria is facing a critical stage

Tebboune stressed, after the vote, that his country is facing a critical stage, and that the presidential elections taking place today are “fateful for the state and the people.”

He said in a statement to the press after voting at one of the polling stations in the Algerian capital, that "the election campaign was very clean, the three knights (candidates) were up to the mark and gave a very honorable image of Algeria and democracy, and I hope that it will be an example for others."

He added, "Algeria is an integral part of the Arab, African and Mediterranean world, and our country is facing a critical stage because whoever wins will continue the journey, a fateful journey for the state and the people until we reach a point of no return in order to strengthen rights and build a true democracy, not a democracy of slogans."

Tebboune noted that the world is witnessing that the Algerian citizen is gaining more rights day after day, stressing that he will work to meet all his demands and desires.

Outgoing President Abdelmadjid Tebboune (78 years old) received the support of the parliamentary majority parties, most notably the National Liberation Front, formerly a single party, and the Islamist party, the Construction Movement, whose candidate and leader, Abdelkader Bengrina, came in second in the 2019 elections. Tebboune also received clear support from the army leadership, which makes his re-election more than certain.

Participation rate bet

Tebboune wants “intensive participation, this is the first bet, as he has not forgotten that he was elected in 2019 with a low turnout, and he wants to be a normal president and not a poorly elected one,” according to the Algerian director of the Center for Studies on the Arab and Mediterranean World in Geneva, Hasni Abidi.

The elections that brought him to the presidency five years ago witnessed a record 60 percent abstention, as the massive “Hirak” demonstrations demanding democracy were still at their peak. He won 58 percent of the votes.

Faced with the specter of abstention or a massive boycott, given the lack of other stakes in this vote, Tebboune and his supporters, as well as his rivals, have made several tours across the country since mid-August calling on voters to participate strongly.

But observers confirm that the course of the election campaign received little attention, especially since it took place, unusually, in the middle of summer in intense heat.

The three candidates focused their campaign speeches on social and economic issues, pledging to work to improve purchasing power and diversify the economy to become less dependent on hydrocarbons, which account for 95 percent of the country's hard currency resources.

On the external level, there was consensus in the positions of the three candidates regarding the defense of the Palestinian cause, and the independence of Western Sahara, which is called for by the Polisario Front and Algeria, in the face of Morocco.

Uncle Tabon

Citing an improved social and economic record, Tebboune promised new increases in wages, pensions and unemployment benefits, the construction of two million homes, as well as increased investments to create 400,000 jobs and make Algeria “the second largest economy in Africa” after South Africa.

At the end of his election campaign in Algiers, the president, nicknamed “Uncle Tebboune” by his supporters, pledged to give young people “the place they deserve,” given that they represent half the country’s population and a third of voters.

He said he wanted to complete the implementation of the “New Algeria” project for a second term, considering that his first term faced the obstacle of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Youssef Ouchich, candidate of the Socialist Forces Front, spoke after leaving the polling station in his hometown in Tizi Ouzou, about “making the future and abandoning abstention.”

As for Abdelali Hassani, the candidate of the Movement for a Peaceful Society who voted in the municipality of Bir Khadem in the capital, he said that he ran in these elections “with all the sense of responsibility towards the nation, the people, and the political values derived from freedom, transparency, and rotation of power.”

He added: “Algeria will remain a social democratic state within the framework of Islamic principles, as stated in the November 1, 1954 statement. We have made a tremendous effort to reach this historic moment.”

Algerian analyst Hasni Abidi considered that Tebboune's record suffers from a "democratic deficiency" that could constitute an obstacle during his new term.

For its part, the non-governmental organization Amnesty International expressed its concern about the situation in a statement on September 2. It said in a report, “Algeria has witnessed a steady deterioration in the human rights situation in recent years. It is worrying that the situation remains bleak with the elections.”

(Agencies)