Algerian government suffers fresh blow as most voters stay home in national elections

Algerians are losing faith in the country's embattled elite which has ruled the country for decades

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  Algeria is holding legislative elections of 2021 to elect 407 members of the lower house, the People's National Assembly (APN), for a five-year term. EPA

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  Algerian elections staff count ballots for parliamentary elections at a polling station in Bouchaoui, on the western outskirts of the capital Algiers. AFP

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  Algerian elections staff count ballots for parliamentary elections at a polling station in Bouchaoui, on the western outskirts of the capital Algiers. AFP

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  Election officials count ballots after the closing of stations in the legislative elections in Algiers, Algeria. EPA

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  Initially expected for 2022, the elections are being held early in the context of a revision of the Constitution carried out by referendum in November 2020. EPA

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  Algerian elections staff count ballots for parliamentary elections at a polling station in Bouchaoui, on the western outskirts of the capital Algiers. AFP

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  Algerian elections staff count ballots for parliamentary elections at a polling station in Bouchaoui, on the western outskirts of the capital Algiers. AFP

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  Algerian elections staff count ballots for parliamentary elections at a polling station in Bouchaoui, on the western outskirts of the capital Algiers. AFP

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  Election workers empty a ballot box at the end of voting in the parliamentary election in Algiers. Reuters

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  Election workers count ballots at the end of voting in the parliamentary election in Algiers. Reuters

Algerian voters stayed home in record numbers during Saturday's legislative elections, following calls from opposition groups to boycott the vote.

According to election authorities, only a third of Algerians came out to vote, with Mohamed Charfi, president of the Autorité Nationale Indépendante des Elections (ANIE) confirming the final turnout as 30.2 per cent.

This is about sovereignty. If you don't care about the majority of the voters, what do you care about?

While Mr Charfi claimed the election had taken place in “good conditions”, the vote was accompanied by clashes between protesters and security forces in the opposition stronghold of Kabylie, where some polling stations were forced to close early.

Overall, 24 million Algerians were invited to choose from the 13,000 candidates for 407 seats on offer. That two-thirds of voters abstained will be a further setback for President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s programme of managed reform. His opponents contend those reform efforts are superficial.

More than half the candidates claimed to be independents. However, with fresh rules and government grants available for new candidates under the age of 40, observers have questioned just how independent many of those candidates are.

This is the third national poll Mr Tebboune has urged Algerians to take part in since mass protests, or the Hirak, forced his predecessor, the ailing octogenarian Abdelaziz Bouteflika, from office in April 2019.

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  A man is carried by police and protesters during a rally marking two years since the start of a mass protest movement demanding political change, in the Algerian capital, Algiers. Reuters

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  Algerians gesture during a demonstration in the capital Algiers, marking the second anniversary of the rise of the country’s anti-government Hirak protest movement. Police were in force on the streets of the city, and helicopters hovered overhead as checkpoints created traffic jams. AFP

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  An elderly man confronts police officers during a demonstration in the Algerian capital Algiers, marking the second anniversary of the country’s anti-government Hirak protest movement. AFP

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  Algerians rally in the capital Algiers, marking the second anniversary of the country’s anti-government Hirak protest movement. AFP

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  Algerian policemen block protesters from advancing during a demonstration in the capital Algiers, marking the second anniversary of the country’s anti-government Hirak protest movement. AFP

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  Algerians march with a national flag during a demonstration in the capital Algiers. AFP

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  Protesters gather in the Algerian capital Algiers to mark the second anniversary of the country’s Hirak anti-government protest movement. AFP

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  Protesters gather in the Algerian capital Algiers to mark the second anniversary of the country’s Hirak anti-government protest movement. AFP

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  Protesters chant slogans during a demonstration in the Algerian capital Algiers. AFP

None of the votes, including Mr Tebboune's own election in December 2019 and a referendum on a constitutional amendment in November last year, have drawn the level of participation the government has been hoping to achieve.

Yesterday's low numbers are unlikely to help matters.

Pointing to the final tally being the amalgamation of areas where the government had great support with those where participation was negligible, activist Aldja Samia Seghir was dismissive of whatever legitimacy the numbers granted the new parliament, saying "it is not the confidence of the Algerians that they want to win back, its a new political clientele."

Casting his vote in the capital on Saturday, the president was dismissive of the low turnout, telling reporters, "For me, it’s not the turnout percentage that’s important, it’s whether the legislators that the people elect have sufficient legitimacy.”

For many, his comment highlighted a government more concerned with superficial change over substantial reform.

"How can he say that?" Raouf Farrah of the Algerian civil society movement, Ibtykar asked.

"It's as if he doesn't understand how democracy works. This is about popular sovereignty. If you don't care about what the majority has to say, what do you care about as a Chief of State?"

Mr Farrah also questioned the extension of polling times, which saw stations stay open an hour beyond the 7pm cut off. In particular, Mr Farrah focused upon the anomalous surge in participation rates during the final period, where voter numbers almost doubled.

"It's also fair to question the results, especially from the South," Mr Farrah said, referring to the higher participation rates recorded in the further reaches of the near 920,000 square mile country, an area where Mr Farrah has travelled.

"Talking to people there, they see this elections only as a way of transmitting local grievances to the centre. It doesn't really have much to do with the independence of the process or the government in charge," he said.

"There's no way this government can claim legitimacy," Mr Farrah said, to do so would require to "engage fully into a new political agenda which starts by freeing the detainees and embarking upon a real transition to a new power. I don't believe this regime is really of that mindset," he said, "Everything we've seen so far suggests they're going to continue with their authoritarian rule."

The neglected south

"It's also fair to question the results from the south," Mr Farrah said, referring to the higher participation rates recorded in the farther reaches of the country, an area where he has travelled.

"Talking to people there, they see the vote as a way of transmitting local grievances to the centre. It doesn't really have much to do with the process or the government in charge," he said.

"There's no way this government can claim legitimacy," Mr Farrah said. To do so would require it to "engage fully with civil society, free the detainees and embark upon a managed transition to a new power".

"I don't believe this regime is really of that mindset," he said. "Everything we've seen so far suggests they're going to continue with their authoritarian rule."

Worsening crackdowns 

The authoritarian approach has come to the fore since the Hirak re-emerged in February from its months-long hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The government responded with an escalating wave of repression as it seeks to wrest the impetus from the protesters who, in addition to ousting his predecessor, forced at least a partial reckoning with many of the country's old guard, many of whom were ultimately jailed on corruption charges.

In a move slammed by rights groups, seven of the Hirak's leaders were arrested on Thursday, with three being released just hours before the polls opened.

Writing shortly after his release, prominent freelance journalist, Khaled Drareni wrote of his "thirty Kafkaesque hours in Antar'" a barracks widely associated with human rights abuses. While confirming that he had not been maltreated, he continued, "our country deserves better than that and our intelligence services deserve better than this hijacking of their mission”.

By some estimates, upward of 3,000 activists have been detained by the security services since February.

Adding to the government's woes is an economy that relies almost exclusively on energy exports, a market that has remained depressed since prices crashed in 2014. Exacerbating its predicament is a predominantly young population, married to one of the most generous subsidy packages within Opec. For many analysts, Algiers has long run past the point where foreign reserves can defer the economic collapse that may be coming sooner rather than later.