ALGERIA: GENERAL ELECTION VOTE COUNTING BEGINS

Record ID: 328575

  • Title: ALGERIA: GENERAL ELECTION VOTE COUNTING BEGINS
  • Date: 5th June 1997
  • Summary: ALGIERS, ALGERIA (JUNE 5, 1997) (RTV-A) 1. MV MAN ENTERS POLLING STATION 0.13 2. SLV INTERIOR OF POLLING STATION, VARIOUS OF BALLOTS PAPERS LINED UP, VARIOUS OF OFFICIALS UNLOCKING BALLOT BOXES AND EMPTYING THEM ON TABLE (6 SHOTS) 1.13 3. SCU OFFICIALS COUNTING BALLOTS (6 SHOTS) 1.59 4. MV OPPOSITION POLITICIAN MAFOUD NAHNAH ARRIVING FOR MEDIA CONFERENCE (2 SHOTS) 2.08 5. SCU ELECTION OBSERVER LISTENING 2.15 6. SCU NAHNAH SAYING THERE HAVE BEEN IRREGULARITIES IN THE ELECTION AND HOLDING UP DOCUMENT (ARABIC) 2.52 Initials S2/3 P2/3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 20th June 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ALGIERS, ALGERIA
  • City:
  • Country: Algeria
  • Reuters ID: LVADILOHIWN3PQ73LI6Z6XLN91TC
  • Story Text: - INTRO: The curtains closed and counting started in polling stations across Algeria on Thursday (June 5) after millions of Algerians, weary of bloodshed, voted in their first general election in more than five years of violence.

    In heavy security against possible attacks by Moslem fundamentalists -- blamed by officials for the conflict -- young and old cast ballots in what many said was a quest for peace.

    Even as they voted, an Islam-oriented party contesting the poll said a bomb had seriously wounded two local election observers in a car near Djelfa in central Algiers.

    The U.S. State Department praised the voters, saying that by turning out in force they had shown "courage because they have been subjected to the most vicious campaign of terrorism over many, many years".

    Voting started slowly. But by the evening of the sunlit day, with an hour to go to the scheduled close at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT), Interior Minister Mustapha Benmansour said over nine million of the 16.7 million electorate had turned out.

    Interior Minister Mustapha Benmansour said over nine million of the 16.7 million electorate had turned out.

    In the capital, where bombs early this week ripped through buses and a crowded market killing 22 people and wounding 120, men and women clutching electoral cards told Reuters they were voting for an end to the strife.


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