The figures are undoubtedly striking. It is two in the afternoon in Algeria on the day of the first legislative elections after the fall of Abdelaziz Buteflika. The electoral college is located in Staoueli, on the western coastal strip of Algiers, the capital of the country. Since the opening of the center, 217 people have voted, as he has written down in pen, in a notebook of squares and rings, one of those responsible for the flow of the day there. There is not much work to tell the truth. Of course, participation in that school, together with the well-known Club des Pins spa, is increasing by the hour. In the first there were 13 voters; in the last one, 46 — a couple of blocks away, in another school, you don't see a soul. Algiers is the
grande ville
and abstention is higher here than in the interior of the country, but this small school is not a bad sample. Shortly before midnight, the president of the National Independent Elections Authority, Mohamed Charfi, reported that 30.2% of voters had gone to the polls, a very low figure that hinders the Algerian transition led by the president Abdelmajid Tebún. The results will be known throughout this Sunday.
And all despite the fact that something has changed in the last two years. Herzallah Selsabil is 28 years old. He chapurrea some of the Spanish he learned at the Instituto Cervantes, located in the center of Algiers. He walks very slowly through the corridors of the Colegio 5 de Julio de Staoueli. Leave the mural of Alice and the Rabbit from Wonderland behind, and the vote begins. It begins because it is not easy: the ballots are taken, one hides in the booth, crosses out the candidates on one of the pages and delivers it; the voter card is stamped, signed with the finger after putting it in a small bottle, also with the pen ... They say it's simple.
Herzallah leaves again at a calm pace, allowing time to wipe his finger: "I did not vote in the presidential elections, nor in the constitutional referendum," he says with a very low voice, "but now I do."
His explanation: "The difference is that now we vote for people like us, we decide who is going to be in Parliament [407 deputies]."
Around 24 million voters were called upon to choose from nearly 1,300 lists, that is, more than 22,000 candidates.
Herzallah has voted this time, yes, but now what?
"I do not expect much after the elections," he responds.
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Algeria is torn between the revolution and the ballot box
Like this young woman, dedicated to institutional communication, many Algerians have turned their backs on the polls in the electoral appointments held since Buteflika resigned in April 2019. The abstention in the elections to which Herzallah did not attend was very high, 60 % in the election of Tebún and 76% in the consultation on the constitutional reform last November. The climate goes by neighborhoods, but many still look at the road map of the new Algerian president, who will continue forward. "For me, participation does not matter," said Tebún after depositing his ballot in a school east of Algiers. "What matters to me is that those for whom people vote have enough legitimacy."
Three opposition parties to the government and the Hirak protest movement, which promoted the Buteflika march from the streets after 30 years in power, have categorically rejected the validity of these elections.
But there are many in Algeria within the largest country on the African continent and many, especially young people - 50% of Algerians are under 30 years old - have seized the opportunity of these legislatures to take a step forward.
So more than half the candidates are independents, like 35-year-old Soltani Mohamed Ikbal.
"Hello, I am a candidate on list 37," he introduces himself.
Independent?
"Yes, independent."
President Tebún cast his vote this Saturday in a school in Bouchaoui, east of Algiers.ALGERIA PRESS SERVICE / Reuters
He goes into one of the voting rooms of the Colegio 5 de Julio, in front of the patio, and takes one of the pages, headed in effect by the number 37. There are his photo and name next to a box and next to the rest of hopefuls from your list. “Before”, he explains with the ballot held over a column and figuratively pointing to some of the boxes, “you chose this candidate because they were well-known people, the minister of I don't know what, the ambassador of I don't know what ... They were going to leave". A quota system called by the critical parties with the previous period.
The new Algerian electoral law has opened the way for many candidates not linked to parties like Soltani, dedicated to international trade and, of course, to politics. With conditions, such as that in the lists, 50% are under 40 years old, that there is transparency in donations, no money comes from abroad, that there is parity between men and women —with exceptions in these elections —... "Still It is difficult for a man in Algeria to vote for a woman ”, adds this candidate. He is excited, he explains it with enthusiasm: "This morning I told myself," Soltani relates, "that the young people were going to vote." But the figures fall because of their weight. "Although I do not think we will exceed 35%."