The president will face two rivals after the elimination of 27 candidates and amid criticism over increased repression
September 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Algeria is holding a presidential election on Saturday, with the current president, Abdelmayid Tebune, the clear favourite, given the absence of any significant alternatives and new calls for a boycott from opposition ranks, which are once again seeking to reflect growing popular discontent in a low turnout rate.
Tebune, 78, took office after elections in 2019, which ended a brief transition period after long-time leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned in April amid massive protests against his plans to run for a fifth term despite being barred from office due to health problems.
In those elections, the politician won more than 58 percent of the votes amid criticism from activists and opponents who participated in the “Hirak” movement against Bouteflika and who considered him a candidate backed by the army who would not undertake the deep structural reforms they demanded.
Tebune’s term was thus scheduled to end in December, although he announced in March that the vote would be brought forward, without giving any explanation and without confirming whether he would seek a second term, which he did on July 11, less than a week after the Independence Day celebrations.
Critics say he was seeking to demobilise his rivals by timing the election campaign with summer, when high temperatures discourage protests and the holiday period reduces the risk of strikes, potentially damaging his image.
This time, he will face Yucef Auchiche, secretary general of the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), and Abdelali Hasani Cherif, leader of the Islamist Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) — linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. A total of 30 people have applied for the presidency, although only these three have been authorized.
Tebune, who promised “a new Algeria” in his first election campaign and has since been criticised for increasing repression and what is seen as an authoritarian drift, has the support of the army and the coalition made up of the historic National Liberation Front (FLN) and the National Democratic Rally.
Indeed, Amnesty International recently accused the authorities of limiting freedoms in the country. Amjad Yamin, the NGO’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, denounced that the country has suffered in recent years a “continued erosion of human rights” through the dissolution of parties, civil organisations and independent media, as well as the increase in “arbitrary arrests and prosecutions using false charges of terrorism”.
CAMPAIGN PROMISES
The country has also seen rising inflation and high unemployment rates, which are compounded by a housing crisis, with a particularly heavy impact on the younger segments of the population, who are increasingly disenchanted with the Algerian political system.
This situation has led Tebune to focus his second election campaign on promises to improve the situation of young people, including improving their quality of life and increasing unemployment benefits.
He also said he would work to “strengthen purchasing power through an increase in wages and the fight against corruption” and “guarantee food, health and water security” in the face of the water shortage affecting several areas of the Maghreb country.
For his part, Auchiche, 41, who heads the country’s oldest opposition party, has maintained a tough discourse and has promised to “change the system of governance” and implement “deep political and institutional reforms” to “establish democracy” and “consolidate the separation of powers” if he wins at the polls.
The opposition leader, who has also advocated measures to improve the quality of life, has made “change” his banner and has presented himself as “the candidate of the youth.” “Bet on change before it is too late,” he said recently, before adding that “the electoral base of the regime cannot exceed six million (people).”
“We, as the independence generation, are building a developed state that is open to the world, a state that enshrines all the freedoms and rights of citizens wherever they are,” he said at a campaign event, according to the daily El Watan, seeking to capitalise on discontent with Tebune.
The third candidate in the race, Cherif, 58, who has the support of Islamist parties such as Ennahda and the Justice and Development Front (FJD), has promised to increase purchasing power, help the most vulnerable sectors and increase pensions, while saying that, if he wins, he will lead the country “within the framework of a political association that includes all currents, not under the colour of a single party.”
He stressed that his programme of action “will have a human orientation, based on the promotion and preservation of the human being and his dignity to make him a source of rebirth, development, elevation and preservation of national security.”
ECONOMY AND DIPLOMACY
The economic situation and that of young people have thus become the main axes of the campaigns, amid an economic crisis that, according to Tebune, has been weathered thanks to his management after the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the fall in oil prices, the country’s main source of income.
The president has praised his economic performance – including a four percent increase in GDP in 2023 and the introduction of unemployment benefits – which his rivals see as having a lot of room for improvement, especially in terms of diversifying exports and sources of income.
Tebune also praised his work in the fight against corruption, one of the main problems denounced during the ‘Hirak’, which put at the centre of his complaints ‘Le Pouvoir’, the name by which the political, business and military circle of trust of Bouteflika is known, who led the country between 1999, after the civil war, until his departure from power in 2019.
The three candidates also expressed their support for the Palestinians in the face of the offensive launched by Israel against the Gaza Strip following the attacks carried out on October 7 by Hamas and other Palestinian factions and against the Sahrawis, the main front in the diplomatic confrontation between Algeria and Morocco.
In fact, Algiers announced in August 2021 the breaking off of its relations with Rabat after denouncing “hostile acts” by the Moroccan authorities, mainly around the dispute in Western Sahara – which have led to the reopening of the diplomatic conflict between Algeria and France – and its agreement in 2020 to normalise relations with Israel.
The elections will also be the first since the constitutional reform approved in a referendum in November 2020, marked by a turnout at historic lows in the face of what the opposition considered an attempt by the elites to dismiss the demands of the ‘Hirak’.
One of the main questions will therefore be the turnout rate, through which Tebune, who is predicted to win by analysts and polls, is seeking to consolidate his position after the setbacks of the last elections, in which low voter turnout was a reflection of social unrest and its distancing from the president’s administration.
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