There are three candidates in the running, but one is the overwhelming favorite. More than 24 million voters are being called to the polls in Algeria on Saturday to elect their president. Algerians abroad, who are 865,490 eligible to vote, began to vote last Monday.
A predictable election, as President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, supported by four parties which have sealed an alliance, including the former single party FLN and the Islamist movement El Bina, seems the favourite to begin a second term at 78 years old.
Elected in 2019 with 58% of the vote during the massive pro-democracy Hirak protests, which led to the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika after twenty years in power, his appointment was marked by a record abstention rate (60%). He will face two competitors: Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, 57, and Youcef Aouchiche, 41.
Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, the engineer who wants to involve Algerians “in the prosperity of the country”
Abdelaali Hassani, 57, is a civil engineer. He is also the president of the main Islamist party and of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP). Holder of a state engineering degree in civil engineering as well as a degree in legal and administrative sciences, he was active in the student movement at the University of M’sila (southeast of Algiers) until 1992. He then worked in the public works department of M’sila until 2002.
President of the MSP office in M’sila between 2008 and 2013, he will be in charge of the organization and digitalization of the national office of the party until 2023, the only national Islamist formation authorized by the government.
During a press conference, he indicated that his electoral program aims to “enshrine the components of national identity and crystallize a vision of global and sustainable development capable of mobilizing human and material capacities, achieving self-sufficiency, strengthening the structure of society and associating all Algerians with the development and prosperity of the country.”
Its programme also aims for “a gradual shift towards a parliamentary system based on accountability and the separation of powers, as well as greater participation of women and young people in political life”.
Youcef Aouchiche, the former journalist who cannot “imagine Algeria without Kabylie”
Youcef Aouchiche, 41, holds a degree in political science from the University of Algiers, where he was a leader of the Collective of Autonomous Students. In 2002, he joined the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), a secular opposition political party founded in 1963, very established in Kabylie, which had boycotted elections since 1999. This is the first time in 25 years that the party has presented a presidential candidate.
In 2008, Youcef Aouchiche began a career as a print journalist until 2012, before becoming a parliamentary attaché for five years. He became a senator in 2022. Last June, he was designated as a presidential candidate after the FFS decided to participate in the election with its slogan: “Vision for tomorrow”.
Voter turnout in the last presidential election was less than 40% in 2019. In Kabylie, it was even the lowest in history: 0.18%. “We cannot imagine Algeria without Kabylie,” Youcef Aouchiche recalled during a presentation in Tizi Ouzou, where he is from, the second largest city in the region after Béjaïa. It remains to be seen whether his participation in the election will be enough to mobilize the Kabyle electorate.