A proposal to change Algeria’s constitution won the most votes in Sunday’s referendum and will become law, but the very low turnout undercut the government strategy of using the poll to turn a page on last year’s political unrest.
Fewer than one in four registered voters cast a ballot, Algeria’s lowest ever turnout, with many in the opposition “Hirak” street protest movement opposing the referendum and the vote taking place amid a global pandemic.
The final turnout was 23.7 percent, but two-thirds of those who did vote supported the changes, the electoral commission head Mohamed Charfi said at a news conference yesterday, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic had negatively affected turnout.
The poll was also seen as a bid to bolster Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, currently hospitalized overseas.
Tebboune, elected in December last year, had pitched the text as meeting its demands.
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