Algeria: Abdelmadjid Tebboune, ex-prime minister of Bouteflika elected president

Abdelmadjid Tebboune, ex-prime minister of 74-year-old Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was elected in the first round to succeed him as head of the Algerian state, the National Elections Authority (ANIE) announced on Friday .

Mr. Tebboune “collected […] 58.15% of the vote”, said the president of the ANIE Mohamed Charfi during an official ceremony, the day after an election marked by a record abstention and which unfolded in a context of massive and unprecedented challenge to the regime in power since independence in 1962.

The Constitutional Council is to announce the final results between December 16 and 25, after examining possible appeals, according to the ANIE.

The ANIE slightly revised the participation rate to 39.83%, the lowest in the history of pluralist presidential elections in Algeria. It is more than 10 points lower than the previous poll – the lowest so far – which in 2014 saw Mr. Bouteflika’s 4th victory.

Algeria has been the scene since February of a movement (« Hirak ») to contest the regime, triggered by Mr. Bouteflika’s desire to run for a 5th term during the presidential election initially scheduled for April.

60% of the citizens did not go to vote. A figure to be taken with caution according to Kader Abderrahim, researcher at Sciences Po and specialist in the Maghreb. « I think that we will still have to check as much as possible the real rate of participation and not the formal rate as it was delivered to us by the administration, » he said at the microphone of RTL. Evening.

« Algeria has to face a lot of challenges, » continued Kader Abderrahim, referring to many « internal but also external risks ».

Regarding the new elected president, « it is clear that we are not at all in the rupture but in the continuity » with Abdelaziz Bouteflika, he affirms.

Abdelmadjid Tebboune, barely elected and already challenged by a human tide, invaded the center of Algiers on Friday December 13 to conspire the new elected head of state, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, an ex-follower of ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the day after a ballot very largely boycotted by the Algerians.

The demonstrators brandish placards on which one can read: « Tebboune your mandate is a mandate born dead » or « Your president does not represent me ».

The demonstrators are of all ages and all social conditions, men and women together, some veiled and others in jeans and sneakers.

« Tebboune is worse than Bouteflika. He is known to have been one of the thieves. We did not vote and we will not back down, » said Meriem, a 31-year-old civil servant.

According to the AFP journalist, the mobilization is as important as last Friday, when a huge crowd had paraded in the center of the capital to reject the presidential election.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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