Algeria's Tebboune re-elected with 94.65% of votes: Electoral authority

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Algeria's incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was re-elected with almost 95 percent of the vote, the country's electoral authority ANIE announced on Sunday.

“Of the 5,630,000 registered voters, 5,320,000 voted for independent candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune, representing 94.65 percent of the vote,” ANIE chairman Mohamed Charfi told reporters in the capital Algiers.

Tebboune, 78, was considered the clear favorite for a second term in office in the race against moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani (57) and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche (41).

“The election was characterized by great transparency” and “reflected the people’s readiness to vote,” Charfi said.

However, he did not release an official turnout, which was seen as Tebboune's biggest challenge in a vote in which his victory was all but certain.

The re-elected president had hoped for a higher voter turnout than in 2019, when he was elected amid a widespread election boycott and the Hirak's mass pro-democracy protests.

Tebboune was elected despite a record abstention rate of over 60 percent.

In the early hours of the morning, ANIE had announced an “average turnout” of 48 percent, but described it as “provisional” without breaking down the number of voters compared to those originally registered.

The announcement came three hours late after the authority announced on Saturday evening that it was extending the voting period by one hour because it expected more voters to show up.

ANIE had also announced an “average” voter turnout of 26 percent by 5 p.m. (16:00 GMT), compared to 33 percent at this time of day in the 2019 election.

Hassani's campaign team said in a statement on Sunday that ANIE's preliminary turnout was “strange” and condemned attempts to “inflate the result”.

Hassani is chairman of the moderate Islamist party “Movement of the Society for Peace” and Aouchiche is chairman of the centre-left party “Front of Socialist Forces”.

bur-bou/jsa