PREVIEW
An historically low turnout and rising youth disaffection shows the spirit of the Hirak rebellion lives on
Faced with the option of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and two weak candidates designed to fluff up the president’s majority, most Algerians stayed at home rather than vote in elections on 7 September.
The national electoral authority put turnout at a disputed 48% in provisional results which gave Tebboune 94.65%, streets ahead of Islamist conservative Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, who won 3%, and socialist Youcef Aouchiche on 2.1% (AC Vol 65 No 16,Emmanuel Macron’s Saharan mystery). Only 5.6 million votes were cast in a country of 45m.
Tebboune’s victory was guaranteed, though the Soviet-style margin of victory was wider than most had expected (AC Vol 65 No 1, General Nguema consolidates his palace coup). Cherif’s aides complained that state election officials had inflated the vote tally for Tebboune.
Few regarded the polls as legitimate. Civil society groups and international agencies in the country had reported harassment and prosecution of officials and activists involved in opposition campaigning.
Tebboune took power in December 2019 after the hirak (to mobilise in Arabic) protest movement which ousted predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika. His government used the restrictions to control the Covid-19 pandemic to snuff out the second phase of hirak protests.
Tebboune has carved out a reputation as a big spender on social safety net programmes funded by oil and gas revenues. That multi-billion dollar soft power budget hasn’t dampened down mass discontent. Against that backdrop, Tebboune and le pouvoir (the powers that be) have reinforced the powers of the military and security services to clamp down on dissidents.
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