Rhino: Agencies – Algeria’s Independent National Electoral Authority announced on Sunday that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had won Saturday’s presidential election, but a rival candidate alleged irregularities in the vote counting process.
Official preliminary results showed Tebboune received 95 percent of the votes to avoid a runoff, while moderate Islamist Hassani Cherif Abdelaziz received three percent and moderate secularist Youssef Ochich received two percent. Turnout in the election was 48 percent.
The military-backed Tebboune faced little competition from either Hassani Cherif or Ochich, both of whom ran with the blessing of Algeria’s powerbrokers.
Hassani Cherif’s campaign said it recorded what it said were “unacceptable administrative practices by the Independent National Electoral Authority,” including “pressure on some polling station administrators to inflate the results, failure to deliver counting records to the candidates’ representatives, and mass voting by proxy.”
However, the head of the National Electoral Authority, Mohamed Charfi, said when announcing the results that the authority was keen to ensure transparency and fair competition between all candidates.
Tebboune’s victory means that Algeria will likely continue to implement a program based on generous spending on social projects after increasing energy revenues, a program he initiated after taking office in 2019 following a period of low oil prices.
Tebboune promised to increase unemployment benefits, pensions and social housing programs, having already raised all of these benefits during his first term as president.
Tebboune was first elected during the Hirak protests that forced his veteran predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika to leave power after 20 years.
Tebboune supports a tough security approach that has seen prominent opponents jailed.