By RFPosted on 12-12-2019Modified 12-12-2019 at 05:07

The mobilization increased throughout the week against the presidential election. At the same time, the authorities have repeatedly said that voting is the answer. The election will take place. The polls open at 8am this Thursday morning December 12. And the question everyone asks is: how are you going to spend this day?

Some mayors, as in the region of Tizi Ozou in Kabylie, for example, said they would not put at the disposal of the state the means to organize the poll. Despite this opposition, the Algerian transition authorities are determined to organize the vote.

Twenty-four million voters are registered on the electoral lists and 500,000 people are responsible for supervising the polls in more than 60,000 polling stations throughout the territory, announced the electoral organization authority. For several days, in the official media, the authorities call for a " mass participation ".

They have already announced a first participation figure, that of Algerians abroad . The authorities and the public media are categorical: " everything happens regularly and in good conditions ". The electoral authority certifies that the participation rate of the community abroad was already 20% Tuesday at 13h. This would mean that around 182,000 people, most of whom are registered on the consular electoral lists in France, are returned to polling stations.

But the opening of polling stations abroad gave rise to altercations as early as Saturday. As the tension mounted, personalities issued a call for appeasement, asking the protesters not to prevent those who wished to vote. And since Monday, protests against the election are daily in the capital and in other major cities of the country. This Wednesday, the mobilization was particularly important and in the capital, protesters protested until the night.

Faced with this, the authorities multiply the speeches. The Chief of Staff, the officials of the organizing authority, the acting president, all call to vote, invoking in turn, the need to save the nation, patriotism, fear of violence . Wednesday morning on the national radio, a representative of the authority of the organization of the elections said that to vote was " a citizen act to save the nation for a situation of violence which could go crescendo ". But since February 22, what characterizes this Algerian protest movement is its pacifism.

But some statements were more virulent like that of the Minister of the Interior who treated the protesters as " traitors, perverts and homosexuals ". This Thursday, the tension could go up a notch. And the question arises of the voting process and whether the opponents will try to prevent those who wish to vote.

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