Headlines: Algerians shunned the ballot box

Audio 04:12

Counting operation in a polling station in Algiers, Saturday to June 12, 2021. © AP - Anis Belghoul

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

9 mins

Publicity

The early parliamentary elections on Saturday were marked by a very strong abstention. “ 

Main stake, the national participation rate reached only 30.2%,

points

Jeune Afrique

, that is to say the weakest score for at least 20 years for legislative. By way of comparison, it stood at 35.7% during the last legislative elections in 2017 (and 42.9% in 2012). Participation is even down compared to the 2019 presidential election, which saw Abdelmadjid Tebboune elected with only 40% of the votes, a record abstention for such an election

  ”

For the government daily

El Moudjahid

, all is well.

“ 

30.2% is the average participation rate in the early legislative elections, this meeting reinforces the restored trust between citizens and the organization of elections according to rules of transparency and integrity, a deadline which will give birth to an APN, a national popular assembly, freely elected by the people.

 "

Elected by a minority

The daily

Liberté

 does not have quite the same analysis.

President Tebboune may say that the participation rate does not interest him, "

 the next National Assembly will suffer from the weakness of its legitimacy,

estimates the Algerian daily

.

A handicap which will offer one more opportunity to the Executive to "legislate" as it sees fit.

As usual.

The desired new institutional building is "erected".

The legislator had foreseen everything.

Even the turnout has no impact on the outcome of the election.

Except at the symbolic level for the deputies who should remember that they are elected by a minority. 

"

The Islamists on the way to winning the day?

“ 

And here we are at a crossroads!

 Exclaims

Le Matin d'Algérie

. Le

Matin d'Algérie

which wonders: " 

how will the authorities face the After June 12?

? How will Tebboune manage the anger of the street, him, who since his investiture at the Palace of El-Mouradia has never been to a dechra [a village] or even a wilaya [a prefecture]? And if the Islamists of Makri win the stake of this election, largely shunned by the Algerians? Questions of this kind, we ask ourselves by the thousands in the other Algeria, that of the marginalized, the poor and the neglected: the Algeria of the youth to simplify. How not to think about it, continues Le Matin d'Algérie, when the first magistrate of a country, around Africa and the Mediterranean, does not care about the rate of participation in an important election like the legislative ones?

 "

Precisely, points out the

TSA

site

,

Tout sur l'Algerie

, “ 

the Islamist MSP party, the Society for Peace Movement, yesterday claimed victory in Algeria and abroad.

The MSP which asked President Tebboune to "protect the popular will expressed on the ground, and this in accordance with its commitments".

A request justified by the MSP which reports "attempts" of fraud in order to "modify the results of the election", which could have, according to him, "bad consequences" on the country.

 "

France 24

persona non grata

Finally, yesterday, notes

Le Monde Afrique

, “ 

the Algerian authorities have decided to withdraw their accreditation from our colleagues on the France 24 news channel, because, they say, of their“ manifest and repeated hostility ”. This withdrawal is also motivated by "the non-respect of the rules of professional ethics, disinformation and manipulation as well as a proven aggressiveness towards Algeria," said Ammar Belhimer, government spokesman. "Our coverage of Algerian news is done in transparency, independence and honesty," said France 24. The French foreign ministry declined to comment. (...) For years

, reminds

Le Monde Afrique, foreign media working in Algeria are subject to a bureaucratic, opaque and random accreditation procedure.

The director of Agence France-Presse for Algeria, appointed in October 2019, has never obtained accreditation from the authorities.

No reason was given in this regard.

And working conditions are difficult for Algerian journalists, against a backdrop of repression of Hirak by the authorities.

 "

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  • Algeria

  • Abdelmadjid Tebboune

  • Journalism