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Algeria presidential candidate slams bids to 'inflate results'

With a near-certain win, Tebboune's main challenge was to increase the voter participation level in Saturday's election after a historic abstention rate of over 60 per cent in 2019

Published: Sun 8 Sep 2024, 5:25 PM

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  • AFP

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An electoral worker empties a ballot box to count votes, during the presidential election in Algiers, Algeria, on Saturday. REUTERS

An electoral worker empties a ballot box to count votes, during the presidential election in Algiers, Algeria, on Saturday. REUTERS

Algerian President and presidential candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune gestures outside a polling station, during the presidential election in Algiers, Algeria, on Saturday. REUTERS

Algerian President and presidential candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune gestures outside a polling station, during the presidential election in Algiers, Algeria, on Saturday. REUTERS

The campaign of Algerian presidential challenger Abdelaali Hassani claimed on Sunday there was vote-rigging during the previous day's election which incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune is expected to win.

Abdelaali Hassani Cherif gestures as he casts his vote at a polling station during the presidential election in Algiers, Algeria, on Saturday. REUTERS

Abdelaali Hassani Cherif gestures as he casts his vote at a polling station during the presidential election in Algiers, Algeria, on Saturday. REUTERS

Hassani, a 57-year-old moderate leader, has been one of two candidates seeing off Tebboune, the election's frontrunner seeking a second five-year term.

Hassani's campaign said there has been a "failure to deliver vote-sorting records to the candidates' representatives" and that it recorded "instances of proxy group voting".

With a near-certain win, Tebboune's main challenge was to increase the voter participation level in Saturday's election after a historic abstention rate of over 60 per cent in 2019, the year he became president.

More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote this year, but electoral authority ANIE on Sunday did not give an official turnout rate.

Instead, it announced a "provisional average turnout" rate of 48 per cent, without giving the total number of voters.

Hassani's campaign on Sunday said the move was "strange" and denounced "pressure on some polling station officials to inflate the results", without giving further details.

ANIE is set to announce the official turnout rate later on Sunday, along with the election's results.



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