Algerian court confirms overwhelming re-election victory of President Tebboune | News

The Constitutional Court said the incumbent retained his seat in the September 7 election with 84.3 percent of the votes cast.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune secured a second term in office in last week's election with an overwhelming result of 84.3 percent of the vote, the Constitutional Court announced.

The court said on Saturday it had access to local election data to resolve questions about irregularities raised by Tebboune's opponents in two appeals this week.

Preliminary results released on Sunday by the National Independent Electoral Authority (ANIE) showed nearly 95 percent support for Tebboune, prompting other candidates to challenge the result in court.

“After reviewing the regional protocols and correcting the errors found in the vote count,” Tebboune's share of the vote was reduced and it was found that his two opponents had received hundreds of thousands more votes than previously reported, said the President of the Constitutional Court, Omar Belhadj, in an address broadcast live on national television and radio.

“We announce that Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been elected for a second term and will assume his duties upon swearing-in,” Belhadj said.

Tebboune, 78, had been widely expected to win the election comfortably, but instead he focused on ensuring a high turnout. According to Belhadj, the turnout was 46.1 percent in the September 7 vote, in which more than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote.

Tebboune was first elected in December 2019 with 58 percent of the vote, despite a record abstention rate of over 60 percent during the Hirak Club mass protests. He has since been criticized for his human rights record.

According to Amnesty International, under Tebboune, the Algerian authorities have “continued their repression of civilian space” and pursued “a zero-tolerance attitude towards dissent.”

Hasni Abidi, an analyst at the Geneva-based CERMAM study center, said voter turnout was a key issue for Tebboune, who “wants to be a normal president, not a badly elected one.”

'Fraud'

His challenger Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, leader of the conservative Society for Peace movement, filed his lawsuit against the vote count on Tuesday, a day after calling the result “fraud.”

Youcef Aouchiche, leader of the centre-left Front of Socialist Forces party, later followed suit and accused the ANIE of “fabricating” the result.

In an unprecedented move, all three campaigns – including Tebboune's – released a joint statement late Sunday evening alleging “irregularities” in the ANIE results and adding that they wanted to draw public attention to “ambiguities and contradictions in the turnout figures”.

According to ANIE's preliminary results, Tebboune received 94.65 percent of the vote, Hassani 3.17 percent and Aouchiche 2.16 percent.

The final result was 9.56 percent of the vote for Hassani and 6.14 percent for Aouchiche.

Out of a total population of 45 million Algerians, over 24 million people were registered for this election.

According to figures published by the court, as of September 7, 11.2 million of them had cast 9.4 million valid votes.