President Abdulmadjid Tebboune has been declared the winner of Saturday’s election by Algerian authorities, with official preliminary results giving him 95% of the vote.
The percentage was enough to avoid a second-round run-off, with opposition candidates, Abdelaali Hassani Cherif who got 3% and Youcef Aouchiche 2.1%.
The margin of victory far surpasses Tebboune’s 2019 election win, when he won 58 percent of the vote, while his closest challenger received only 17 percent.
According to Reuters, Tebboune, backed by the military, faced only nominal opposition from Hassani Cherif, a moderate Islamist, and Aouchiche, a moderate socialist, both running with the blessing of Algeria’s powerful establishment.
Tebboune was declared winner, for a second term, on Sunday despite claims by a rival candidate of alleged irregularities in the count and fewer than half of registered voters cast ballots.
