Algeria’s National Independent Electoral Authority confirmed that under 40 percent of registered voters cast a ballot on Thursday’s disputed election rejected by the nine-month-old protest movement, reported France 24. The vote numbers show that a record six in 10 Algerians abstained from voting in the presidential election.
Electoral Authority Chief Mohamed Charfi said on national television that the turnout among Algerians living in the country was a little over 41 percent and close to nine percent among its nationals living abroad. The voting rate recorded on Thursday is the lowest for a multi-party election in the country’s history.
The unpopular vote follows a mass protest movement that ousted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 82, in April following two decades in office.
Since February, thousands of Algerians have been protesting every Friday in Algiers and other cities across the country against any elections under the current government. They want all officials associated with the regime of ousted President Bouteflika to be removed from office, including interim President Abdelkader Bensalah and Prime Minister Nouredine Bedoui.
The protesters claim the poll cannot be fair unless the ruling elite and the military give up their power. They have rejected all five candidates running for the presidency, calling them “children of the regime” and of the former President Bouteflika.
Notably, even on the day of the election, Algerians continued with the protests and rallied in central Algiers, defying a heavy police presence backed by water cannons and helicopters that tried to disperse protesters and prevent a repeat of the previous day’s anti-election demonstrations.
“No vote! We want freedom!” the protesters shouted as they marched through the city centre in the capital Algiers.
Preliminary results are expected on Friday, with official results later this month and a possible second-round run-off in early January. The elected president is likely to struggle to achieve acceptance from the Algerian people.
