PC: [Ramzi Boudina/Reuters]
Voting has closed in
Algeria’s presidential election in a poll where the incumbent Abdelmadjid
Tebboune is tipped to stay on for a second term.
Voting began at 8am
(07:00 GMT) and was scheduled be closed at 7pm (18:00 GMT) before it was
extended for an hour.
Tebboune,
78, is heavily favoured to see off moderate conservative Abdelaali Hassani
Cherif and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche.
More than 24 million
Algerians were registered to vote in the elections.
“Today we start
building our future by voting for our project and leaving boycott and despair
behind us,” Aouchiche said
on national television after casting his vote.
Hassani
Cherif told journalists he hoped “the Algerian people will vote in
force” because “a high turnout gives greater credibility to these elections”.
Algerians abroad have been able to vote
since Monday, and the country’s election authority (ANIE) put that turnout at
14.5 percent. The move to extend voting on Saturday came shortly before ANIE
announced a turnout of 26 percent nationwide as of 5pm (16:00 GMT).
Low summer campaign
period
Preliminary results
could come as early as Saturday night, with ANIE announcing the official
results on Sunday at the latest.
Campaign rallies have
struggled to generate enthusiasm in the nation of 45 million, partly because of
the summer heat.
With young people more
than half the population, all three candidates have courted their votes with
promises to improve living standards and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons.
Tebboune has touted
economic successes during his first term, including more jobs and higher wages
in Africa’s largest exporter of natural gas.
His challengers have
vowed to grant the people more freedoms.
Aouchiche says he is
committed “to release prisoners of conscience through an amnesty and to review
unjust laws”, including on media and “terrorism”.
Hassani Cherif has
advocated “freedoms that have been reduced to nothing in recent years”.
Opposition in Algeria
‘non-existent’
Youcef Bouandel of
Qatar University told Al Jazeera that the political opposition in Algeria is
almost “non-existent”.
“Everybody would be
surprised if Abdelmadjid Tebboune doesn’t win tonight – in the first round of the presidential election,” he said.
Boubaker Sellami, an economist, said that while “investors had no confidence to invest in Algeria previously, that’s beginning to change as our laws are amended and our image changes”.
“The rebound of our economy depends on severing the relationship between corruption, money and politics. And that’s what’s given us a launchpad towards a new economic outlook.”
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