Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika clinched a fourth term on Friday, despite his poor health, winning a landslide victory in an election marred by low turnout and his rival alleging fraud.
The 77-year-old incumbent, who voted from a wheelchair on Thursday, scooped 81.53 percent of the votes, while his main rival, former Algerian prime minister Ali Benflis, received 12.18 percent, Algerian Minister of the Interior Tayeb Belaiz told a news conference.
“The people have chosen freely, in a climate that was transparent and neutral,” Belaiz said.
Benflis, who had already cited “serious irregularities” across the country on polling day, swiftly refused to recognize Bouteflika’s re-election.
“Recognizing it would be [being] complicit in fraud,” he told a news conference, condemning what he called “an alliance between fraud, suspicious money and the bought media.”
Bouteflika’s victory had been widely expected. His supporters celebrated in Algiers after polls closed late on Thursday and Friday’s papers anticipated his re-election before the results were announced.
The vote comes a year after Bouteflika suffered a stroke that confined him to hospital for three months and prevented him from campaigning in person.
French President Francois Hollande wished Bouteflika “full success” in his undertakings, while Moroccan King Mohamed VI said his re-election reflects the “will of the people to forge ahead with development.”
However, the re-election of the man who has ruled the energy-rich North African nation since 1999 has provoked the anger of young Algerians desperate for change amid the widespread corruption, high youth unemployment and sectarian unrest plaguing the country.
It remains to be seen if Bouteflika will make good on his campaign promise of “a broad democracy” in which “every citizen will take part in the country’s development.”
Analysts warn of rising instability in Algeria over social problems and the government’s failure to address them.
“Bouteflika’s re-election will pave the way for a period of instability characterized by social discontent that will get worse,” political analyst Rachid Tlemcani said. “The powers that be, embodied by Bouteflika, will no longer be able to buy the social peace, as they did during his three previous mandates, because of a probable fall in the country’s oil revenues.”
Discontent is most evident in the Kabylie region, where about 70 people were hurt in clashes on Thursday between police and youths seeking to disrupt the vote.
In Raffour Village, masked youths armed with slings and chanting hostile slogans confronted police who fired tear gas.
More than 260,000 police officers, some armed with assault rifles, were deployed to maintain security during polling.
Despite Bouteflika urging “all citizens to participate” and “not remain on the fringes of the nation,” voter turnout appeared to reflect the political apathy among the electorate.
Figures showed that 51.7 percent of Algerians voted, making it the weakest participation rate of any presidential election in the past 20 years.
The turnout, which was lowest in Kabylie — where only about one in four people voted — was sharply down from the official figure of 74.11 percent given in 2009. A leaked US diplomatic cable estimated the actual 2009 figure at not more than 30 percent.
Bouteflika’s decision to seek re-election was first announced in February, drawing derision and at times scathing criticism in the independent media.
Nevertheless, he remains popular with many Algerians, especially for helping end the devastating civil war of the 1990s in which up to 200,000 people were killed.
“The Algerians have voted for security and stability,” newspaper Ach-Chouroq said on Friday.
However, leading daily El Watan lamented “blackmail through fear,” saying the vote would be remembered as the “election of the absurd.”
Ahmed Ouyahia, who heads the Algerian president’s office, had said that a contested election result could reopen “the gates of hell.”
In a rare public expression of the frustration felt by some Algerians toward what they perceive as an authoritarian political establishment, the youth protest group Barakat (Enough) was founded two months ago specifically to challenge Bouteflika’s re-election camapaugb.
Barakat and a coalition of five opposition parties, both Islamist and secular, had urged people to boycott the vote, but sporadic demonstrations in the weeks before the poll were quickly suppressed.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese