Voters turned out poorly for the presidential election in Algeria on Saturday, with turnout below 50%, although turnout was the main issue in this election in which outgoing President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is expected to emerge victorious.
Three hours behind schedule for his press briefing, the president of the electoral authority Anie, Mohamed Charfi, announced “an average participation rate of 48.03% at 8:00 p.m.” (7:00 p.m. GMT), without specifying the number of voters compared to the more than 24 million registered voters. This is “a preliminary figure,” he said. The results of the vote are expected on Sunday.
In December 2019, Mr. Tebboune was elected with 58% of the vote but with a turnout of only 39.83% (60% abstention), in a context marked by the hostility of the pro-democracy demonstrators of Hirak and calls for a boycott of political parties.
On Saturday, the turnout was very timid when the polls opened at 8:00 a.m. (7:00 a.m. GMT) and television images showed only a few offices with long queues. At the end of the day, the Anie delayed the closing by an hour, at the request of “certain coordinators” of the vote.
In a polling station in central Algiers, women swelled the ranks of voters in the afternoon, who initially were only men, like Sidali Mahmoudi, a 65-year-old shopkeeper, who came “early to do his duty in all democracy.”
Taous Zaiedi, a 66-year-old retiree, and Leila Belgaremi, a 42-year-old accountant, said they were voting “for the country to improve.”
Facing the outgoing president, two candidates were in the running: Abdelaali Hassani, a 57-year-old engineer, head of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP, the main Islamist party) and Youcef Aouchiche, 41, a former journalist and senator, head of the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS, the oldest opposition party).
Mr. Tebboune is the clear favorite, benefiting from the support of four major parties including the National Liberation Front (FLN, former single party).
Hasni Abidi of the Cermam Study Center in Geneva explained the low turnout by “a mediocre campaign” with two competitors who “were not up to the task” and a president who “barely hosted four meetings.” For voters, “what was the point of voting if all the predictions were in favor of the president,” the expert added.
– “credibility” –
Around 24.5 million voters, a third of whom were under 40, out of 45 million inhabitants, were called to vote.
After a morning vote, Mr. Hassani had hoped for a “high turnout” which “gives greater credibility” to the elections, while Mr. Aouchiche also urged “Algerians to participate in force” to emerge “definitively from the boycott and despair.”
Without mentioning the turnout, Mr. Tebboune considered it essential that “the winner pursues (his) project, which is decisive for Algeria in order to reach a point of no return in economic development and the construction of a democracy.”
All three candidates said they wanted to improve purchasing power and revive the economy, so that it would be less dependent on hydrocarbons (95% of foreign currency earnings).
Aided by the natural gas windfall, of which Algeria is the leading African exporter, Mr. Tebboune promised to raise salaries and pensions, two million new homes and 450,000 new jobs, to make Algeria “the second economy in Africa”, behind South Africa.
– “Lack of popular support” –
Seeking to win over the younger generation, Mr. Tebboune asked for five more years to complete projects hampered by Covid-19 and the corruption of his predecessor, of whom he was nevertheless a minister.
His rivals have promised more freedoms. In particular, the FFS candidate has pledged to “free prisoners of conscience through an amnesty and to review unjust laws” on terrorism and the media.
For Mr. Abidi, the Hirak movement, stifled by Covid-related bans on gatherings and the arrest of its leading figures, has “shown the high level of political maturity” of Algerians.
If he wins the election, Mr Tebboune “will survive a deficit of popular support but on condition that he completely reviews his method of governance and makes changes to his team”.
Otherwise the “deficit of democracy” in his record could constitute a handicap in a new mandate.
The NGO Amnesty International accused the government this week of continuing to “stifle civic space by maintaining a severe repression of human rights”, with “new arbitrary arrests” and “a zero tolerance approach to dissenting opinions”.
abh-bur/fka/cco
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