The people of Algeria have re-elected Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune as President of the largest country and emerging economy of Africa as the preliminary results of early Presidential Election announced late on 08 Sep 2024. The polling was held on 07 Sep that received a big turnout from the public, especially from the youth and the women who were addressed as priority by Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune during his election campaign.
Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune contested as Independent candidate and secured votes 5,329,253 votes on 07 Sep 2024 with percentage of 94.65 %. The other candidates, Abdelaali Hassani Cherif of Movement of Society for Peace took 178,797 votes that are 3.18 % and Youcef Aouchiche of Socialist Forces Front got 122,146 votes with 2.17%.
The number of total votes cast is 5,630,196 and the number of registered voters is 24,351,551. Domestic turnout was estimated to be at around 48%, while turnout in overseas balloting was at 19.6%.
Overseas voting, covering around 800,000 Algerians, began on 2 September, while mobile polling stations servicing remote areas of Algeria began operating on 4 September. On 7 September, polling opened at 08:00 and was originally supposed to close at 19:00 before it was extended by an hour.
President Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune aims to achieve a GDP of $400 billion by 2027. Heannounced for young people to give them “their rightful place” through several measures and provisions, including “the creation of jobs with decent salaries.”
His other pledges are ; Algerian economy “the second largest in Africa,” – creating 450,000 jobs, building two (2) million housing units, increasing salaries, allowances, and university grants, allowance to housewives, and boosting citizens’ purchasing power, create 20,000 investment projects, support farmers, end wheat, corn, and barley imports, increase irrigated areas, and “definitively solve” the problem of drinking water supply “by the end of 2024, to “close the file on the status of teachers and paramedical staff by 2025”, reinforce child protection, review the administrative division, create new provinces, review the communal code, continue to address the concerns of the national community abroad, and further strengthen People’s National Army (PNA).
On 21 March 2024 the office of incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced that the election would be held on 7 September. This was a surprise as the elections were anticipated to be held in December as they were in 2019.
Tebboune later explained that the date was the optimal time to hold the election “because it coincides with the end of the summer vacations and the start of the new school year”, hereby ensuring high turnout that is helpful in strengthening the state to make it able to face the multiple challenges ahead.
Algerian Embassy in Islamabad organised early presidential elections, 7 September 2024, voting operation started from 5 to 7 September, with a large participation of the Algerian community in Pakistan. H.E. Brahim Romani made necessary arrangements to facilitate to Algerian citizens residents in Pakistan to use their right of vote in a free and fair manner.
Tazeen Akhtar from Islamabad , Pakistan
