ALGERIA: Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika wins third term as president

Record ID: 573898

  • Title: ALGERIA: Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika wins third term as president
  • Date: 11th April 2009
  • Summary: ALGIERS, ALGERIA (APRIL 10, 2009) (REUTERS) WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE WITH ALGERIAN INTERIOR MINISTER YAZID ZERHOUNI (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALGERIAN INTERIOR MINISTER YAZID ZERHOUNI SAYING: "Votes received. Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika 12,911,705, which is 24 percent of the vote." NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALGERIAN INTERIOR MINISTER YAZID ZERHOUNI SAYING: "Votes received. Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika 12,911,705, which is 24 percent of the vote." JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALGERIAN INTERIOR MINISTER YAZID ZERHOUNI SAYING: "The presidential elections have consolidated the Algerian people and the candidates who want to lead them, and has given them a strong sense of national pride at the height of the ambition of our people to elect in freedom and sovreignty the man or woman to take charge." JOURNALISTS / ZERHOUNI AT PODIUM
  • Embargoed: 26th April 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAUHKIJ0O6OI06TK17VSGP1RKZ
  • Story Text: Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika wins a third term as president with 90.24 percent of vote, the nearest rival getting 4.22 percent Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won 90.24 percent of the vote in a presidential election, officials said on Friday (April 10, 2009), cementing his hold on the oil producer troubled by a lingering Islamist insurgency.
    But some in the opposition alleged massive fraud and militants attacked a polling station on Thursday, underscoring the challenges Bouteflika still faces from sections of the population disillusioned by poverty and joblessness.

    "Bouteflika has won ... 90.24 percent of the votes cast,"
    Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, in charge of organising Thursday's election told a news conference.
    Bouteflika's nearest rival, Trotskyist candidate Louisa Hannoune, won
    22 percent of the vote, the minister said.
    The ministry had already announced turnout was 74.11 percent -- higher than in the last presidential vote and an indication that opposition calls for a boycott had not been heeded by many of Algeria's 34 million people.
    Victory for Bouteflika, a 72-year-old veteran of Algeria's war for independence from France, was never in doubt. He faced lightweight rivals in the ballot and had a well-funded campaign that plastered the capital with his posters.
    Algerian lawmakers cleared the way for Bouteflika to stand for a third term in Thursday's election by abolishing term limits, a move critics said could allow him to serve as president for life.
    The Interior Minister said the election had demonstrated to the world that Algeria was committed to democracy.

    "The presidential elections have consolidated the Algerian people and the candidates who want to lead them, and has given them a strong sense of national pride at the height of the ambition of our people to elect in freedom and sovreignty the man or woman to take charge," he said.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register