Algeria's president Tebboune re-elected for second...

Algeria's president Tebboune re-elected for second term

Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune leaves a polling station after voting in Algiers on September 7, 2024.

Zim Now Writer

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been named the winner of Algeria's presidential election, granting him another term leading nation five years after pro-democracy protests led to the ouster of his predecessor.

Tebboune, 78, has been re-elected with almost 95 percent of the vote, the country's electoral authority ANIE said Sunday.

More than 5.3 million people voted for Tebboune, accounting for "94.65 percent of the vote.

Tebboune had been heavily favoured to secure a five-year second term, in the race against moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani, 57, who won 3.17 percent of the vote and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche, 41, who won 2.16 percent.

While Tebboune's re-election was certain, his main focus was to boost voter participation in Saturday's poll after a record-low abstention rate of over 60 percent 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 jail.

More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote. But ANIE didn't say how many people in total had turned out to cast their ballot on Saturday.