Tebune and his two presidential rivals cast their votes in Algerian elections

September 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Algerian President Abdelmayid Tebout and his two rivals in the presidential elections taking place this Saturday in the African country have already gone to vote, after the polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. (local time), a vote in which the president appears as the main favorite.

Tebune went to vote at a polling station in the Buchaui district, west of the capital, Algiers, where he said he “wishes the best for Algeria” and praised the electoral campaign as “clean” and “providing an honourable image” of the country.

“Let’s hope that everything goes smoothly. Whoever wins the elections will have to continue on the path that the Algerian state is destined to take in order to build a true democracy,” the president said, as reported by the Algerian daily ‘Echorouk’.

For his part, Yucef Auchiche, secretary general of the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS) – the oldest opposition party in the African country – has called on the population to go out and vote after depositing their ballot at a polling station in the province of Tizi Uzu.

“You can participate in shaping your future by voting for the project of change. Today, the silent majority can become an active majority,” he said, before defending his intention to promote “a system of government based on popular sovereignty” if he wins.

The third candidate, Islamist Abdelali Hasani, leader of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, also called for a “massive” turnout in the presidential elections after voting in Algiers. “We trust the people and we trust in their freedom of choice,” he said, adding that “the decision belongs to the Algerian people and all their decisions will be accepted.”

The president of the Independent Election Authority (ANIE), Mohamed Chorfi, said that the participation rate at 10:00 a.m. (local time) was 4.56 percent, as reported by the Algerian daily ‘Tout sur l’Algerie’.

The turnout rate is one of the key points of these elections, after reaching around 40 percent in the December 2019 elections, a figure that dropped even further in the 2021 constitutional referendum, in a sign of the population’s disenchantment with the political situation in the country.

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.

The president, who has the support of the Army and the coalition made up of the historic National Liberation Front (FLN) and the National Democratic Group, is thus seeking a second term amid complaints about repression against opponents and activists and growing skepticism among the population about the country’s management.

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”.