Algerians shun the ballot box once again

An abstention in the form of reprobation.

If these were the first legislative elections since the unprecedented and peaceful popular uprising, born on February 22, 2019 from the rejection of a 5th term of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, they did not however raise the crowds.

Proof of a general fed up of Algerians in the face of the elites and a political class that does not renew itself.

Main issue, the national participation rate has indeed reached only 30.20%, the lowest score for at least 20 years for legislative elections, according to the president of the National Independent Election Authority (ANIE), Mohamed. Chorfi.

By way of comparison, it stood at 35.70% during the last legislative elections in 2017 (42.90% in 2012). Turnout is even down compared to the 2019 presidential election, which saw Abdelmadjid Tebboune elected with only 40% of the vote, a record abstention for such an election. But whatever happens, the power will live with it. “For me, the turnout doesn't matter. What matters to me is that those for whom the people vote have sufficient legitimacy, ”President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has already explained. The color of the next assembly should emerge on Sunday but the official results could not be announced before 96 hours, specified the president of the ANIE.

Voting operations took place generally calmly in Algiers, where voters were counted on the fingers of one hand, and in the provinces, except in Kabylia, a rebellious region where participation was already almost zero in previous polls.

The Algerians paraded in droplets in the voting booths, according to AFP journalists on the spot.

“I never voted and this time it's the same.

I don't think things can change, ”said Fatiha, a 50-year-old trader.

"I voted for stability (...) Those who refuse the ballot offer no realistic alternative", pleaded for his part Hamid, a 60-year-old executive.

Tensions in Kabylia

In Kabylia (northeast), almost all the polling stations have closed in Béjaïa and Tizi Ouzou, the most populous cities in the Berber-speaking region, according to the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights and the Committee National for the Release of Prisoners (CNLD). Clashes broke out in several Kabyle municipalities, with looting of the ballot boxes, and the police carried out dozens of arrests, according to the LADDH and the CNLD. Images of ballot papers littering the streets in Kabylia circulated on social networks. The CNLD also reported arrests in Algiers and in the neighboring town of Boumerdès.

Before the elections, the Hirak, who calls in vain for a radical change in the "system" of governance in place since independence (1962), denounced an "electoral masquerade" and "a headlong rush" of the regime. The secular and leftist opposition boycotted the ballot. Whatever, the government is determined to impose its electoral "road map", ignoring the demands of Hirak: rule of law, democratic transition, popular sovereignty, independent justice.

Some 24 million Algerians were called upon to elect the 407 deputies of the National People's Congress for five years. They had to choose from 2,288 lists, of which more than 1,200 listed themselves as “independent”. This is the first time that such a large number of independents have come forward against contenders endorsed by parties largely discredited and held responsible for the crisis in the country.