• Maghreb Algeria elects president to close 20 years of the Buteflika era
  • Protests: Algerians redouble their challenge against the regime in the first major protest since the call for elections
  • Said Buteflika: 15-year-old brother of former president Buteflika, who was 'strong man' of Algeria, is sentenced

Empty polling stations. Full streets. Algerians on Thursday gave their verdict to the presidential elections to elect the successor of Abdelaziz Buteflika and have not expressed it at the polls, but protesting. The center of Algiers has become a massive demonstration to express rejection of this electoral process. In Cabilia, the boycott of the elections has also had a high following and even the protesters have come to close several voting centers and destroy ballot boxes and ballots. There have also been demonstrations in Constantine and Oran.

The streets of the capital have dawned taken by the security forces. Dozens of trucks were crowded in the tunnel of the faculties and in the immediate vicinity of La Poste, the nerve center of the answering movement ('Hirak') that exploded in February and has not stopped going out twice a week since then . Hundreds of riot gear equipped with shields and batons formed on Didouche Murad Avenue, the main artery of the city center to cut the marches that ran towards the Audin Square.

Nearby, at the Pasteur educational center, which served as a voting center, the polls stood alone. There has been a total absence of voters throughout its 10 polling stations, as EL MUNDO has been able to verify. The president of table 19, for example, had only 20 ballots counted in his ballot box at 1:00 p.m. There was no sign of auditors of the five candidates in Liza.

The official figures, however, show a 20.43% participation at 3:00 pm, as Mohamed Charfi, president of the National Electoral Independent Authority (NSAID), created in September to guarantee the elections, said in the afternoon. This is a slightly lower figure than the one registered at that time in the 2014 presidential elections (23.25%). The elections in Algeria are held without the presence of international observers to monitor the transparency of the vote. According to analysts, a minimum participation is expected, between 5 and 10%, but with "figures inflated by the authorities", they emphasize.

Through the walls of the Pasteur school the songs of the demonstrators were heard. 'La lil issabat' (Not the band), they sang. "We want a civil state, not a military state," they have claimed, echoing the peaceful nature of the protests. After noon, tens of thousands of people have concentrated in the center and surrounding streets to denounce the "electoral masquerade."

In the morning, there have been scenes of repression and riot police have tried to prevent the marches. In the early afternoon, the protesters were so numerous that they have broken the police cordon that cut off the accesses to the Great Post and have been able to march peacefully. Women and men of all ages, families with children, all with their mobile phones in hand recording the marches, have paraded to the frustration of riot police. "We said there would be no elections today!" They shouted. 'Istiqlal, Istiqlal!' (Independence!), They demanded. Some handed out dates to protesters. Others were wrapped in the Algerian flag.

"We are witnessing a great peaceful revolution," says Mustafa Buchachi, a human rights defense lawyer and emblematic figure of the 'Hirak'. "The Algerians reject the system's road map, according to which the latter decides who will be president and the citizens confirm it at the polls. Most Algerians boycott these elections. The participation rate will be the lowest I have met, "he says in an interview with this newspaper in his office near the Plaza Audin, from which the echo of the slogans of the protesters is heard.

"These elections are illegitimate. There was an opportunity to hold a serious dialogue between citizens and institutions, and then prepare elections. But the power has rejected it and imposed its road map. If 'les decideurs' [as they call in Algeria to the dome of power] these elections would have been wise should not have taken place. Not even the five candidates have been able to campaign or have been able to walk freely on the street without being scared of the crowd, "adds Buchachi.

The aspirants are five men of the system that were once close to the Buteflika clan, which has earned them popular rejection. These are former prime ministers Ali Benflis and Abdelmayid Tebune, former ministers Azedin Mihubi and Abdelkader Bengrina, as well as Abdelaziz Belaid, an old cadre of the ruling party and main supporter of the overthrown 'rais'.

"The president who leaves the polls will be very weak and will not have legitimacy. It will therefore be very difficult to govern this country," Buchachi predicts.

"We will attend a massive electoral fraud, the same practices as the old regime," denounces Hakim Belahcel, general secretary of the opposition party Socialist Forces Front (FFS), which reveals that images of long lines of voters have been disseminated that are actually civilian military "They will announce a second Bensalah [in reference to the interim president] and we will return to the street until the power hears us," he says.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Algeria
  • Abdelaziz Buteflika

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