President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is re-elected in a landslide in gas-rich Algeria

ALGIERS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been named the victor in Algeria's presidential election, winning in a landslide marred by low voter turnout and claims of irregularities from his detractors in the gas-rich North African nation.

The country's independent election authority on Sunday announced that Tebboune had won 94.7 per cent of Saturday's vote, far outpacing his challengers Islamist Abdelali Hassani Cherif, who received only 3.2 per cent and socialist Youcef Aouchiche, who got just 2.2 per cent.

In a country where the military has long played a decisive role in politics, Tebboune's runaway victory will likely fuel claims made by pro-democracy activists who see elections as tools that political elites use to give off an appearance of popular support.

Tebboune's reelection comes five years after weekly pro-democracy protests known as the “Hirak” led the military to oust his octogenarian predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika following two decades as president.

His win surprised few observers internationally or in Algeria. Tebboune's total vote share was far more than the 87 per cent that Vladimir Putin won in Russia's March elections and the 92 per cent that Ilham Aliyev got in Azerbaijan's February contest. Independent observers were not permitted in Algeria.

Election officials reported 5.6 million of the country's roughly 24 million voters had turned out to vote on Saturday. Such high abstention rates, which remain unofficial, would surpass the 2019 presidential election when 39.9 per cent of the electorate participated.

The election process outraged Tebboune's detractors. Activists and international organizations, including Amnesty International, railed against the campaign season's repressive atmosphere and the harassment and prosecutions of those involved in opposition parties, media organisations and civil society groups.

Some denounced this election as a rubber stamp exercise that can only entrench the status quo.

Tebboune's challengers thread a delicate line, avoiding direct criticism in the lead-up to Election Day.

However, earlier on Sunday, Cherif's Movement of Society for Peace decried irregularities and said there had been a failure to deliver vote-sorting records to the candidates' representatives. He said the party had recorded instances of proxy group voting and pressure put on poll workers to inflate certain figures, which it did not specify.

After the result was announced, his campaign manager Ahmed Sadok doubled down and called them outlandish.

“It's a shame. It's an attack on the image of Algeria, which will become the laughing stock of nations,” he said.

Aouchiche's campaign did not immediately make a statement on the result.

Tebboune's 5.3 million votes eclipses the 4.9 million he won in 2019, when his 58 per cent share outpaced his closest opponent by 41 per cent.

Though some of his supporters quickly framed the results as a success, including pro-Tebboune university professor Abdellaoui Djazouli, who said it was a resounding endorsement of Tebboune's programme.

“The President has more legitimacy to continue his action to better establish his project for the new Algeria,” he said on public television.

Final figures showing low voter turnout, however, would mark a failure for the political establishment and a triumph for abstentionists as 4 out of 5 Algerian voters stayed home, according to Sunday's figures.

Higher turnout was a widely publicized goal for Tebboune and his two challengers. Each of the three candidates encouraged political participation while other activists and political parties called for another boycott, fearing the election could only entrench and legitimize “le pouvoir" — a term used to describe the military-backed elites who run the country.

"The vast majority of the Algerian people have just given le pouvoir' a lesson in democracy," said Nassira Amour, a teacher and leading figure from Algeria's pro-democracy movement. “The majority did not vote ... This electoral masquerade is a victory for the Hirak.”

Algeria is Africa's largest country by area and, with almost 45 million people, it's the continent's second most populous after South Africa to hold presidential elections in 2024 — a year in which more than 50 elections are being held worldwide, encompassing more than half the world's population.