the worrying gap between the regime and the population

“A triumph”and “tidal wave”applauded the official press in Algeria by welcoming the re-election, Saturday, September 7, of Abdelmadjid Tebboune. The victory of the outgoing president, a pure product of the system, former prefect then minister, aged 78, was supposed to consolidate a regime shaken by the peaceful uprising of Hirak of 2019-2020. It was supposed to give a compass to a power that had lost all direction, disoriented as much by the changes in Algerian society as by a regional environment in full strategic restructuring. It is not a given that the score of 94.65% of the vote attributed to Mr. Tebboune is enough to mask the fragility of the operation.

Not only does this Soviet-style rate awaken dire memories of the locked-down regimes of yesteryear, but the imbroglio that followed the announcement of the results openly casts doubt on the sincerity of the exercise. The electoral commission in fact put forward a mysterious turnout figure of 48.03%, even though the ratio between the total number of votes cast (5.63 million) and the electorate (24.35 million) shows a rate of 23%, a percentage twice as low.

The distortion is so blatant that the campaign directors of the three candidates in the running – Tebboune himself, Abdelaali Hassani, of the Movement of Society for Peace (Islamo-conservative), and Youcef Aouchiche, of the Front of Socialist Forces (democrat with a strong Kabyle base) – jointly denounced « contradictions » and some “irregularities” about the figures published by the electoral commission. Mr. Hassani even went so far as to mention a “masquerade”.

The steamroller of realpolitik

If the debate around participation is so crucial, it is because it is the gauge of the legitimacy of the re-elected president. In 2019, barely 39% of Algerian voters turned out. However, five years later, disaffection seems to have worsened, with a participation rate falling to 23%. The reality that such disengagement reflects, that of a population reluctant to endorse a ballot sealed in advance, is the exact opposite of the official narrative on “the country’s rediscovered unity around a leader capable of leading Algeria into the future”according to the daily’s dithyramb L’Expression.

As usual, the steamroller of realpolitik will work to hide doubts and questions. Abroad, congratulations are already pouring in, notably from Emmanuel Macron, who sends Mr. Tebboune his “best wishes for success”. We are very far from the cold reaction of the French president, who was content to “take note” of Mr. Tebboune’s first election in 2019. It is true that this was a different era, that of the effervescence of the Hirak, before repression strangled it.

As a new quarrel develops between Paris and Algiers, following the French pro-Moroccan U-turn on Western Sahara, Mr. Macron will surely redouble his solicitude towards Mr. Tebboune. Paris cannot be blamed for doing everything to improve relations between the two sides of the Mediterranean. But it should also be known that Algerian public opinion observes this theatre of diplomatic pleasantries with bitterness, disappointed to see that the coalition of reasons of state so easily ignore its own voice.