Algeria’s incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was re-elected with about 95% of the vote, the country’s electoral authority ANIE announced Sunday.
“Out of 5,630,000 voters recorded, 5,320,000 voted for the independent candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune, accounting for 94.65 percent of the vote,” ANIE head Mohamed Charfi told reporters in the capital Algiers.
Tebboune, 78, was heavily favoured to secure a second term in the race against moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani, 57, and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche, 41.
“The election was marked by broad transparency” and “reflected the electoral maturity of the people”, said Charfi.
However, he did not offer the official turnout %, which was viewed as Tebboune’s greatest obstacle in a poll when his win was all but guaranteed.
The re-elected president had hoped for a larger turnout than in 2019, when he was elected amid widespread boycotts of elections and massive pro-democracy rallies in Hirak.
Tebboune was elected at the time despite a record abstention rate of more than 60%.
In the early hours of the day, ANIE declared a “average turnout” percentage of 48 percent, describing it as “provisional,” but did not provide a breakdown of the number of voters versus those initially enrolled.
The statement came three hours late, after the authority said on Saturday evening that voting would be extended by one hour in anticipation of more voters turning up.
ANIE had also announced a “average” participation rate of 26 percent by 5:00 p.m. (1600 GMT), compared to 33 percent at that time in the 2019 elections.
On Sunday, Hassani’s campaign issued a statement calling ANIE’s provisional turnout “strange” and denouncing attempts to “inflate the results”.
Hassani leads the moderate Islamist Movement of Society for Peace, while Aouchiche leads the centre-left Socialist Forces Front.