The president is predicted to win 5 extra years within the elections with no surprises anticipated.
Voting has concluded for Algeria’s presidential election in a vote that’s anticipated to see incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune stay in workplace for a second time period.
Voting started at 8:00 a.m. (07:00 GMT) and was scheduled to finish at 7:00 p.m. (18:00 GMT) earlier than being prolonged for an additional hour.
Tebboune, 78, is the overwhelming favorite to defeat reasonable conservative Abdelaali Hassani Cherif and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche.
Greater than 24 million Algerians registered to vote within the elections.
“At this time we start to construct our future by voting for our challenge and forsaking the boycott and despair,” Aouchiche mentioned on nationwide tv after casting her poll.
Hassani Cherif advised reporters he hoped “the Algerian folks will vote en masse” as a result of “excessive turnout offers higher credibility to those elections.”
Algerians overseas have been capable of vote since Monday and the nation’s electoral authority (ANIE) has estimated turnout at 14.5 p.c. The choice to increase voting on Saturday got here shortly earlier than ANIE introduced a 26 p.c turnout nationwide at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT).
Summer time off-season marketing campaign interval
Preliminary outcomes may come as early as Saturday night, with ANIE set to announce official outcomes by Sunday on the newest.
Marketing campaign rallies have struggled to generate enthusiasm within the nation of 45 million folks, partly due to the summer season warmth.
With greater than half of the inhabitants younger, the three candidates have courted their votes with guarantees to enhance residing requirements and scale back dependence on hydrocarbons.
Tebboune has touted financial successes throughout his first time period, together with extra jobs and better wages in Africa’s largest pure gasoline exporter.
His rivals have promised to grant extra freedoms to the folks.
Aouchiche says he’s dedicated to “releasing prisoners of conscience by means of amnesty and reviewing unjust legal guidelines,” together with these referring to the media and “terrorism.”
Hassani Cherif has defended “freedoms which were diminished to nothing lately.”
The opposition in Algeria is “non-existent”
Youcef Bouandel of Qatar College advised Al Jazeera that political opposition in Algeria is sort of “non-existent”.
“Everybody can be shocked if Abdelmadjid Tebboune didn’t win tonight within the first spherical of the presidential election,” he mentioned.
Boubaker Sellami, an economist, mentioned that whereas “traders had been beforehand missing confidence in investing in Algeria, that’s beginning to change as our legal guidelines are being amended and our picture is altering.”
“The restoration of our economic system is determined by breaking the connection between corruption, cash and politics. And that’s what has given us a launching pad in the direction of a brand new financial perspective.”
