Algeria-USA: Protests After Army Favourite Abdel Aziz Bouteflika Declared The Winner Of Presidential Election

Record ID: 4064

  • Title: Algeria-USA: Protests After Army Favourite Abdel Aziz Bouteflika Declared The Winner Of Presidential Election
  • Date: 16th April 1999
  • Summary: Street protests broke out in three main Algerian cities after army favourite Abdel Aziz Bouteflika was declared the winner of a one-candidate election boycotted by the opposition. The other six hopefuls had withdrawn before Thursday's vote in protest at what they called vote rigging. Witnesses said several people were wounded on April 16 as police in full riot gear charged into hundreds of anti-Bouteflika demonstrators in the capital. Thousands of others demonstrated in the eastern cities of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia, which largely boycotted the poll. Interior Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said that final results showed Bouteflika got more than 7. 4 million or 73. 79 percent of the 10. 5 million officials said had voted. By official count, the percentage of eligible Algerians who actually cast their votes was down sharply from 1995 election. Sellal said 60. 25 percent of the 17. 5 million electorate voted compared with 74. 82 percent in a similar poll in 1995. More than 70,000 people have been killed since 1992 when Algeria plunged into violence after the authorities cancelled a general election in which FIS took a commanding lead. Bouteflika will take over from outgoing President Liamine Zeroual within a week after Algeria's election watchdog, the Constitutional Council, approved the final results, Sellal said with giving a specific date. The six opposition leaders, who pulled out on the eve of Thursday's contest, rejected the results and vowed to mobilise popular demands to "impose a true democracy". Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, an ex-foreign minister supported by FIS, came second with 12. 53 percent, according to the official count. Ibrahimi was one of the six who pulled out but the boycott came too late for officials to delete their names from ballot papers. He dismissed the election as a "sham. " "I refused to take part in an immoral process the people know is rigged. Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia are two Berber-speaking cities, which witnessed the lowest turnout with less than six percent in each. With a combined population of two million, they are strongholds of main secular opposition leader Hocine Ait Ahmed, who got 3. 17 percent of the votes. Turnout stood at 38. 93 percent in the capital Algiers, which has 1. 7 million electorate.
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  • Location: ALGERIA ALGIERS
  • Reuters ID: LDL0012AXH9NZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
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  • Copyright Holder: Reuters Archive
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