"Serious challenges" awaits Taboun after his victory in the Algerian presidency

Despite the failure of the 2019 presidential presidents, due to the pressure of the popular movement since February 2019, the transitional administration of Algeria, led by the interim President Abdel Qader bin Saleh, and the National Army Command, insisted on accomplishing the task of political transition, and filling the political vacancy left by the resignation of the president The former Abdulaziz Bouteflika was decisive in reaching the moment when the National Authority to organize the elections announced the victory of the presidential candidate, Abdel Majid Taboun, in the December 2019 elections. These elections have presented many challenges that will face the elected president, the most prominent of which is the restoration of street confidence in state institutions, and m Thrusting economic conditions, and the leadership of the political reform process.

Taboun in his electoral speech tried to win over the masses, through the anti-corruption paper, and to recover the looted money, in addition to employing the political injustice he suffered from the financial cartel of Bouteflika's regime, who ended his duties as first minister after only three months.

Split indicators

The results of the Algerian elections produced many indications and indicators that express the division that has plagued Algerian society since the resignation of Bouteflika in early April 2019. We will try the following to highlight the most prominent of them:

1- Political participation

Although the authorities have accelerated the procedures of trying the former regime’s symbols, with the aim of reassuring the street and ensuring its participation in the elections, this did not find much, as the percentage of participation in these elections - according to the preliminary results announced by the National Authority for Organizing Elections - reached about 40%, which is the percentage The lowest ever in the history of the Algerian presidential elections, which amounted to 52% in the 2014 presidential elections, while it exceeded the elections in 1994, when former President Al-Yamen Zeroual (1994-1999) won, almost 75%.

This low rate poses major challenges for the administration of President-elect Abdel Majid Taboun to overcome the crisis of legitimacy, and to get out of Algeria from a state of mobility to the stability of institutions and regularity of their work.

2- The phenomenon of voiding voices

In this election, the phenomenon of invalidated voices emerged, as invalid votes exceeded the barrier of one million and 250 thousand votes, approximately 12% of the total number of votes. One of the voters whose voices were invalidated considered that his participation in the elections was motivated by proving that he cast his vote on his electoral card, as it can be requested by some departments and government departments to settle some business and administrative clearances, such as social housing files.

3- The transparency of the elections

Despite the political mobility that has extended since February 2019, which accompanied the electoral process, the five candidates unanimously demanded the transparency of the elections, which was promised by the National Authority to organize the elections, which was formed as a result of a recommendation for the national dialogue led by the National Commission for Dialogue and Mediation, and then the authority assumed Patriotism in the role previously played by the Ministry of Interior. The election organizing authority promised to publish the official counting records of all the electoral centers on its official website after the end of the counting processes, and also allowed the delegates of the candidates to poll ballot boxes, with the aim of adding transparency to the electoral process.

4- Boycott the elections

Large campaigns spread among the popular movement calling for rebellion against the electoral process, and the boycotters consider that it is not logical to participate in an electoral process under the laws of the Bouteflika regime, and under the supervision of its organs and institutions as well. The district expanded in the tribal region that none of the five candidates could visit, with the exception of "Bin Quraina", whose conference was subjected to violence and a major clash there, and all the candidates failed to persuade the people of the region to open electoral offices for them, which means the region's rebellion against the entire electoral process. . In his first speech after announcing the preliminary results, the Algerian President-elect "Taboun" said that he was looking forward to visiting the Kabylie region, and promised to deal with the demands of its people. The region witnessed the burning and destruction of the contents of a number of electoral headquarters, especially in the states of Bejaia, Tizi-Ouzou, and Bouira, in addition to some activists of the movement organizing parallel elections for the presidential elections, to urge people to boycott.

5- The parties retreat

The role of traditional parties and elites in these elections has declined completely, although the ruling National Liberation Front announced its support for candidate Ezzedine Mihoubi, the former Minister of Culture, and the Secretary-General of the National Democratic Rally (partner of power), but the 7.26% obtained by Mihoubi was like Shock within the Algerian partisan circles. Some analyzes see that this small percentage was the result of the split and fragmentation situation, and the absence of the organization that afflicted the ruling coalition parties after Bouteflika's resignation in April 2019. In the same context, the major opposition parties, such as the Peace Society Movement party, the Social Democratic Party, or the Justice Front Development, for any support, whether for candidates or for the electoral process.

Post-Bouteflika Algeria

The announcement of the election organizing authority not only represented the preliminary results of the 2019 presidents with a break with the regime of Bouteflika, but also a break with the legitimacy of the liberation revolution on which the seven presidents who ruled Algeria since independence were based, and thus the election of Taboun represents a state of transition from the liberation generation whose end Bouteflika represents to the generation of independence . It is worth noting that the generation of independence is the most educated and educated, as the five presidential candidates received first university degrees and graduate studies in economics, finance, law and administration, while former Algerian presidents were able to read and write, and some of them hold basic education certificates, due to their preoccupation with the armed struggle Against the French occupation.

The Taboun political project in post-Bouteflika Algeria is based on opening a comprehensive national dialogue, based on the recommendations of the National Commission for Dialogue and Mediation, which called for entering the country into a constitutional transitional period, with the aim of adapting state institutions to the popular aspirations expressed by the popular movement. Taboun considered that forming his new government would be a surprise to the Algerian people, pledging to release political prisoners, opening the door for dialogue with the popular movement, launching public freedoms, especially the press and media, working to amend the constitution, and setting up a new election law, followed by the dissolution of the legislative authority institutions and local councils that It is controlled by the Liberation Front and the National Rally parties, and it is evident from this that the Taboun project is based on the necessity of restoring people's confidence in state institutions and stopping economic decline. Despite the ambitious vision that the President-elect aspires to, the period during which he took office highlights many of the challenges that he will face upon entering the Muradiyya Palace. Among the most prominent of these challenges are:

1- The movement continues

The popular movement that has been going on for 10 months may represent an obstacle to Taboun programs, especially the economic project that relates to sensitive files such as support and wages, and the movement will try during the coming period to gain more popular support after its decline in order to pressure Taboun to respond to them. Indeed, Taboun resorted in the first of his speeches to the option of dialogue with the movement, as he called the representatives of the movement for dialogue, and promised to communicate with the competent authorities to release the detainees against the background of the protests, as he seeks from these steps and promises to overcome the issue of legitimacy, and build a wall of trust with the movement to notify Algerians of change .

2- Economic conditions

The economic situation presents the greatest challenges for the elected president, who raised slogans to fight corruption and political money, and promised to recover the people's looted money by the former regime, which was estimated at $ 20 billion. Besides, Taboun calls for rationalizing support by opening postal accounts for needy families, and converting support into cash support instead of commodity support that drains the country's budget, reaching $ 16 billion in 2019, and is expected to reach $ 17 billion in 2020 The challenge to tackle the fiscal deficit, stop the erosion of foreign exchange reserves, the deterioration of the local currency, reduce import, and move from commodity support to monetary support remains the biggest challenge for President-elect Abdel-Majid Taboun, given his fear of the street rejecting these steps, especially with fear of continued momentum Popular movement. In the same context, the relationship between Taboun and the financial cartel since he was prime minister in 2017 may represent an obstacle to attracting investments, as the financial cartel during Bouteflika's era highlighted him as hostile to the business class, which he refuted throughout his campaign.

The role of traditional parties and elites in these elections has declined completely, although the ruling National Liberation Front announced its support for candidate Ezzedine Mihoubi, the former Minister of Culture, and the Secretary-General of the National Democratic Assembly (partner of power), but the 7.26% that Mihoubi obtained was tantamount to Shock within the Algerian partisan circles.

The victory of seeing power

The passage of the Algerian presidential elections represented a victory for the transitional authority’s vision of the necessity of bridging the political vacancy left by Bouteflika's resignation, and it is expected that Algeria's political map will witness a fundamental change during the coming period, especially with the announcement that you do not intend to form a political party.

Taboun tried in his electoral speech to win over the masses, through the anti-corruption paper, and recover the looted funds, in addition to employing the political injustice he was subjected to from the financial cartel of the regime of Bouteflika, who ended his duties as first minister after only three months.