The images did not fail to provoke reactions on social networks. On Saturday 7 September, at 8 am, the private television channel Echourouk broadcast images of a crowd of clean-shaven young people in front of a school in Telaghma, in the wilaya of M’Sila, in eastern Algeria, evoking in the caption one “great crowd”For some, there is no doubt: these are soldiers sent there to show the image of a crowd of voters who came to vote en masse in the presidential elections promised to the outgoing president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
If it didn’t fool too many people, the image corresponds to the authorities’ desire to see this. “electoral party”According to the formula established by local media, they end with a higher turnout than the 39.8% recorded during the last presidential elections, on December 12, 2019, won by Tebboune: the lowest turnout in the history of these elections in Algeria.
In Algiers, this Saturday seemed like Friday, a day of great prayer and rest. The popular enthusiasm expected by the authorities did not come about. Polling stations, open from 8 a.m., did not attract crowds. By 10 a.m., only 2.28% of Algerians had voted, while the national turnout rate barely reached 4.56%, according to figures from the Independent National Electoral Authority (ANIE). A slow start, typical of large cities, where we often see increased crowding at the end of the day. In total, more than twenty-four million voters, including more than 865,000 abroad, were called to the polls. Among them, 36% are under 40 years old, the age group known to be the most abstinent.
Facing Abdelamadjid Tebboune, two candidates doomed to fill the gap: Youcef Aouchiche, first secretary of the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), and Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, leader of the Movement for Society for Peace (MSP), an Islamist party. The two opponents conducted a quiet campaign, refraining from questioning the head of state about his career and his programme.
In these close elections, Tebboune’s real adversary was abstention, a fact that has become structural in Algeria. “If Youcef Aouchiche and Abdelaali Hassani Cherif had really assumed their opposition status, they would have led to a lively campaign and perhaps encouraged a good turnout. But by imposing a restricted role on them, the regime missed the opportunity to interest Algerians.”estimates a former journalist who requested anonymity.
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