Algeria constitutional court confirms President’s victory despite fraud claims News
EL Hacene Boulkroune, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Algeria constitutional court confirms President’s victory despite fraud claims

Algeria’s top court confirmed the victory of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Saturday with state media reporting that the president received 84.3% of the vote, despite claims of fraud from the opposition.

Opposition leader Abdelali Hassani Cherif, head of the moderate Islamist party Movement of Society for Peace, legally challenged the vote last week. Cherif was later joined by Youcef Aouchiche, leader of the opposition center-left Socialist Forces Front, who accused the electoral authority of forging the results, according to reporting by the Associated Press. Following the announcement of the results, Cherif and Aouchiche criticized the country’s election authority for announcing results that contradicted earlier turnout figures.

President Tebboune, aligning with his two challengers, questioned the accuracy of the election results, alleging irregularities in a release that was reported by AP.

Confirmation of the results was announced by President of the Constitutional Court, Omar Belhadj, who said on a live broadcast that Tebboune has been elected for a second term and will resume his duties when sworn in.

Algeria’s National Independent Election Authority (ANIE) reported that President Tebboune won 94.7% of the vote in Saturday’s election, with his challengers, Hassani and Aouchiche, receiving 3.2% and 2.2%, respectively. Throughout election day, ANIE showed a low voter turnout, with only 26.5% of voters participating by 5 PM, a notable decrease from the previous election. Despite an unexplained increase in the turnout to 48% by 8 PM, ANIE later reported the following day that only 5.6 million out of nearly 24 million eligible voters had cast ballots, indicating a turnout far below the earlier figure.