Algerian candidates question presidential election results

The two defeated candidates in the Algerian presidential election on Monday challenged the turnout and share of the vote they received in the weekend vote, denouncing “electoral fraud.”

Speaking to reporters in the capital Algiers, Islamist candidate Abdelaali Hassani nevertheless had to admit defeat to incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who won on Saturday with a landslide victory of almost 95 percent of the votes cast, according to the country’s electoral authority, ANIE.

Hassani, leader of the moderate Islamist Movement of Society for Peace party, said he had “lost the battle but not the war.”

He was one of only two challengers to Tebboune, the second being Youcef Aouchiche of the centre-left Socialist Forces Front (FFS).

At a press conference, Aouchiche said: “The country is in a very unpleasant, even dangerous situation.”

“ANIE bears full responsibility for these dangerous deviations that undermine the election,” he said, announcing that he would appeal the preliminary figures to the Constitutional Court.

The court is expected to review all appeals and confirm the final outcome.

The other challenger, Hassani, had previously denounced “false figures” regarding voter turnout and demanded that the authorities put an end to this “masquerade”.

He also contested the percentage of votes attributed to him, which, according to ANIE figures, was only 3.17 percent, while Aouchiche received 2.15 percent.

Tebboune, 78, was widely expected to win the election handily and instead focused on ensuring a high turnout.

He was elected in December 2019 amid massive pro-democracy protests in the Hirak with 58 percent of the vote, despite a record abstention of over 60 percent.

– “No surprise” –

More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote this year, but ANIE did not release an official turnout rate on Sunday.

Instead, a “provisional average turnout” of 48 percent was reported. This was calculated as an average of turnout in different constituencies and not as a comparison of the total number of voters with the number of registered voters.

The party had previously announced an “average turnout of 26 percent” at 5 p.m. local time (04:00 GMT), seven percent less than at the same time in 2019. It had also extended the voting deadline by one hour.

When the party announced Tebboune’s victory, it said he had received 5.32 million out of a total of 5.63 million votes, or 94.65 percent of the votes cast.

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

The authority then announced that it was still in the process of obtaining official documents on voter turnout in the constituencies and would then forward them to the Constitutional Court.

Analyst Hasni Abidi said Tebboune’s victory was “no surprise” but the incumbent failed to mobilize voters.

“Since 2019, he has received only 319,000 votes and can only attract just over five million of the 24 million registered voters, less than a quarter,” said Abidi, head of the Geneva-based research center CERMAM.