Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has won a second term with 84.3 percent of the vote in last week’s election, final results announced Saturday showed, down from an initial count contested by rivals.
The preliminary results issued by the North African country’s electoral authority ANIE on Sunday gave Tebboune nearly 95 percent support, prompting other candidates to challenge the results in appeals to the Constitutional Court.
The court’s president, Omar Belhadj, announced on Saturday the official count, with Tebboune far ahead of his only two challengers.
“We announce that Mr.Abdelmadjid Tebboune is elected for a second term, and will assume his responsibilities when he swears in,” Belhadj said in remarks broadcast live on national TV and radio stations.
The 78-year-old incumbent had been widely expected to breeze through the election and was focused instead on securing a high turnout, which according to Belhadj stood at 46.1 percent in the September 7 ballot.
More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote in this election.
Tebboune was elected in December 2019 with 58 percent of the vote, despite a record abstention rate above 60 percent, amid the mass Hirak pro-democracy protests.
Presidential candidate Abdelaali Hassani, who heads the moderate Islamist party the Movement of Society for Peace, on Tuesday submitted his challenge to the vote count, a day after denouncing the results as “fraud.”
Youcef Aouchiche, head of the center-left Socialist Forces Front, later followed suit, accusing the electoral authority ANIE of “forging” the result.
In an unprecedented move, all three campaigns — including Tebboune’s — also issued a joint statement late Sunday alleging “irregularities” in ANIE’s results, adding they wanted to make the public aware of “vagueness and contradictions in the participation figures.”
The preliminary results announced by ANIE said that Tebboune had won “94.65 percent of the vote,” with Hassani receiving 3.17 percent and Aouchiche 2.16 percent.
The final results gave Hassani 9.56 percent of the votes, and Aouchiche 6.14 percent.
Tebboune became president after widely boycotted elections and mass pro-democracy protests from 2019 that died out under his tenure as policing ramped up and hundreds were put in jail.
He had touted economic successes during his first term, including more jobs and higher wages in Africa’s largest exporter of natural gas.
Although Algeria’s economy has grown at an annual rate of about four percent over the past two years, it remains heavily dependent on oil and gas to fund its social programs.
Algeria president re-elected with 84.3 percent of votes: official results
https://arab.news/n8udh
Algeria president re-elected with 84.3 percent of votes: official results
- Tebboune was far ahead of his only two challengers
- More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote in this election
Second phase of Gaza polio campaign starts well despite Israeli strikes: WHO
- Aid groups carried out a first round of vaccinations last month
GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it had been able to start its polio campaign in central Gaza and vaccinate tens of thousands of children despite Israeli strikes in the designated protected zone hours before.
As part of an agreement between the Israeli military and Palestinian militant group Hamas, humanitarian pauses in the year-long Gaza war had been due to begin early on Monday to reach hundreds of thousands of children.
However, hours before then, the UN humanitarian office said Israeli forces struck tents near al Aqsa hospital, inside in the zone, where it said four people were burned to death.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said one of its schools in the central Gazan city of Nuseirat, intended as a vaccination site, was hit overnight between Sunday and Monday, killing up to 22 people.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told a Geneva press briefing that over 92,000 children, or around half of the children targeted for polio vaccines in the central area, had been inoculated on Monday.
“What we have received from colleagues is that the vaccination went without a major issue yesterday, and we hope It will continue the same way,” he said.
Other humanitarian agencies have previously voiced concerns about the viability of the polio campaign in northern Gaza, where an Israeli offensive is under way.
Aid groups carried out an initial round of vaccinations last month, after a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus in August, in the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
Lebanon PM: Beirut airport security tightened to deter Israeli attack
- Minister Najib: ‘The government is doing everything in its power to remove any pretexts from the Israelis’ hands’
“The government is doing everything in its power to remove any pretexts from the Israelis’ hands,” he said, adding that “tightened security has been in place for a week at the airport,” located near Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that has seen intense Israeli bombardment.
UN agencies urge more funds for ‘increasing’ Lebanon needs
BEIRUT: Two United Nations agencies on Tuesday called for more funding to address "increasing" needs in Lebanon, where the war between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
"We are preparing for the reality that the needs are increasing," said UNICEF deputy executive director Ted Chaiban and World Food Programme deputy executive director Carl Skau in a joint statement, adding: "We need additional funding, without conditionalities".
One killed in shooting in south Israel: hospital
- Two injured people from the shooting incident were taken to the hospital
JERUSALEM: One person was killed and another wounded in a shooting attack near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Tuesday, a hospital said.
“A short time ago, two injured people from the shooting incident on Route 4 were taken to the hospital. One patient died on his way to the hospital,” the Assuta hospital said in a statement.
Police said officers were at the scene of the shooting near the Yavne South interchange, which is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv.
“The circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation, and the motive has not yet been established,” police said in a statement.
The shooting comes just days after one person was killed and five wounded during a stabbing rampage in four different locations in the central town of Hadera on Wednesday before the assailant was “neutralized.”
Palestinian militant group Hamas later praised the attack, saying it was a “heroic stabbing operation” and calling “for more painful strikes against the occupation.”
And earlier this month, seven people were killed in a shooting and stabbing claimed by Hamas in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian militants have carried out several attacks on Israelis since October 7 last year, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, sparking war in Gaza.
UN troubled by jailing of political opponents in Tunisia
- Several candidates were arrested or given heavy prison sentences
GENEVA: The United Nations said Tuesday it was troubled by the presidential election campaign in Tunisia, which had been “marred” by a crackdown on the opposition.
Three years after making a sweeping power grab, Kais Saied was re-elected president of Tunisia with 90.69 percent of the votes cast, the ISIE electoral authority announced Monday.
A low turnout reflected widespread discontent in the cradle of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings.
Saied had been widely expected to win after the ISIE barred 14 candidates from standing, with other figures jailed.
“Such cases are troubling. Their trials indicate a lack of respect for due process and fair trial guarantees,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said.
His statement recalled that out of 17 prospective candidates only three were accepted, while a number of presidential hopefuls were arrested and served lengthy prison sentences on various charges.
Meanwhile more than 100 prospective candidates, their campaign members and other political figures were arrested on a variety of charges ranging from falsification of electoral paperwork to issues related to national security.
Turk called on the Tunisian authorities to protect the country’s democratic processes and uphold fundamental freedoms.
“Since 2011, Tunisia had been a pioneer in efforts to ensure accountability and redress for past abuses, including through the work of the Truth and Dignity Commission,” Turk said.
“Unfortunately, a number of these gains have been lost, and the recent arrest of the former head of the commission is an example.”
Rights groups fear Saied’s re-election will entrench his grip on the only democracy to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring protests.
Turk noted the broader context of increasing pressure on civil society over the past year, targeting numerous journalists, human rights defenders and political opponents, as well as judges and lawyers.
“I strongly urge Tunisia to recommit to transitional justice in the interests of victims, and to embark on much needed rule of law reforms, in line with international human rights law, including with regard to freedoms of expression, assembly and association,” said Turk.
“I also call for the release of all those arbitrarily detained.”
Turk said he was also concerned about the elections authority refusing to apply a ruling by the Administrative Court ordering the readmission of three excluded candidates, with the parliament passing a law removing electoral dispute from the court’s jurisdiction just days before the election.
“The rejection of a legally binding court decision is at odds with basic respect for the rule of law,” said Turk.
