Algeria’s incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been re-elected with almost 95 per cent of the vote, the country’s electoral authority ANIE said on Sunday.
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More than 5.3 million people voted for Tebboune, accounting for “94.65 per cent of the vote,” ANIE head Mohamed Charfi told reporters.
Tebboune, 78, has been heavily favoured to secure a five-year second term, in the race against moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani, 57, who won 3.17 per cent of the vote and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche, 41, who won 2.16 per cent.
While Tebboune’s re-election was certain, his main focus was to boost voter participation in Saturday’s poll after a record abstention rate of more than 60 per cent in 2019.
That year, Tebboune became president amid widely boycotted elections and mass pro-democracy Hirak protests that later died out under his tenure with ramped-up policing and hundreds put in prison.