Algeria presidential candidates appeal election result

 

Algeria's presidential candidates who lost out to incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Algeria's presidential election filed appeals to the Constitutional Court Tuesday, contesting the provisional result of the vote.

Abdelaali Hassani, who heads the moderate Islamist party the Movement of Society for Peace, was first to submit his appeal.

He said the day before he had "lost the battle but not the war" and denounced the results as a "fraud".

Youcef Aouchiche, head of the centre-left Socialist Forces Front (FFS), later followed suit, accusing the electoral authority ANIE of "forging" the September 7 election's result.

On Sunday, ANIE announced that Tebboune had won "94.65 per cent of the vote", with Hassani receiving 3.17 per cent and Aouchiche 2.16 per cent.

Tebboune, 78, had been widely expected to breeze through the election and was focused instead on securing a high turnout.

He was elected in December 2019 with 58 per cent of the vote, despite a record abstention rate above 60 per cent, amid the mass Hirak pro-democracy protests.

More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote in this election, but ANIE did not say how many people turned out.

Instead, it announced a "provisional average turnout" rate of 48 per cent, which Hassani and Aouchiche have disputed.

Hassani earlier denounced what he called "false figures" on voter turnout and demanded that the authorities put an end to the "masquerade".

Aouchiche on Tuesday also said the results "did not reflect the votes of Algerians".

The Constitutional Court is set to announce the final results within 10 days of receiving the count from Algeria's 58 provinces.

On Monday, it said it had yet to receive all of them.