Abdelaziz Bouteflika is reelected as president of Algeria for third consecutive mandate in office.
12,911,705 votes were counted in favour of the former president during the elections held esterday Thursday 9 April 2009. Bouteflika won a 90.24 percent majority, as stated by the Minister of State, Minister of Interior and Local Authorities Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni on Friday.
The Algeria website elmoudjahid.com reports that Bouteflika is followed by Louisa Hanoune with 604,258 votes, that is, 4.22 percent, Moussa Touati with 330,570 votes (2.31 per cent), Djahid Younsi with 176,674 votes (1.37 percent), Ali Fawzi Rebaïne with 133,129 votes (0.93 percent) and Mohamed Said with 132,242 votes ( 0.92 percent), Zerhouni added in a news conference.
According to the BBC reporter in Algiers, Christian Fraser, the victory of the former president was never in doubt.
Although two soldier were wounded, thursday elections have been peaceful. Nevertheless the BBC reports that some opposition described the election as a charade.
“[There was] a real tsunami of massive fraud which reached an industrial scale,” the Front of Socialist Forces, which boycotted the election, said in a statement.
Former head of Algeria’s human rights league Ali Yehya Abdel-Nour told the BBC the official voter turnout figures had been exaggerated.
Online news coverage
elmoudjahid.com, BBC, africanews.com, misna.org [in Italian], cnn.com, earthtimes.org
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