ALGERIA: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika poised to win a fourth term in the country's presidential election

Record ID: 574344

  • Title: ALGERIA: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika poised to win a fourth term in the country's presidential election
  • Date: 18th April 2014
  • Summary: ALGIERS, ALGERIA (APRIL 18, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF STREETS IN ALGIERS, CARS DRIVING ON ROAD AND PEOPLE ON SIDEWALK DAMAGED ELECTORAL POSTERS ON BOARDS BESIDE ROAD MEN SEATED ON BENCH WITH POSTERS OF PRESIDENT ABDELAZIZ BOUTEFLIKA ON A VAN IN THE BACKGROUND MAN STICKING POSTERS OF BOUTEFLIKA ON VAN ALGIERS STREET SCENE NEWSPAPER STAND
  • Embargoed: 3rd May 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1ECXXN72IQBPYOR6NJLF48TC6
  • Story Text: Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika appeared set to win re-election for another five years on Friday (April 18), after a vote opponents dismissed as a stage-managed fraud to keep the ailing leader in power.
    Bouteflika cast his vote in a wheelchair on Thursday (April 17), in a rare public appearance since suffering a stroke last year that has raised doubts about whether, after 15 years in power, he is fit enough to govern the North African oil state.
    Official results were scheduled to be released later on Friday by the interior ministry, but Bouteflika's allies on Thursday were already claiming a landslide victory for the veteran of Algeria's independence war.
    Bouteflika, 77, was already widely expected to win with the backing of the ruling Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) party, which has dominated the political system since independence from France in 1962.
    Loyalists praise him for helping bring the country out of a 1990s war with Islamists that killed 200,000 people.
    Many Algerians say an ageing elite of FLN leaders, business magnates and army generals - known as "Le Pouvoir" or "The Power", in French - manages politics in behind-the-scenes negotiations and see themselves as guardians of status quo.
    Bouteflika in the past had said it was time for his generation to step aside, but his appearance in a wheelchair at a polling station was a striking image for many Algerians.
    In the capital Algiers, Hakim a retired resident said the President would run the country with his head.
    "No, I was not shocked at all because it reminded me of a historical moment, Roosevelt too was on a wheelchair and it did not prevent him running the most powerful country in the world. I was not shocked at all, Mr. Bouteflika will run the country with his head and not with his feet," Hakim said.
    A young man working as a builder said he felt bad that in a country where youths make up 70 percent of the population , people were unable to be represented by someone other than old President moving himself in a wheelchair.
    "It's sad that in a country with 70 percent of youths not to have the chance of choosing someone else, I don't know if it's a problem of capacity, what is going wrong. I feel bitter that we don't deserve better than that. We have nothing against the man, but four mandates, a wheelchair, it's just too much," said Salim.
    With around $200 billion in foreign reserves from energy sales, Bouteflika spent heavily in 2011 on subsidies, cheap credits and housing to calm rioting over food prices.
    He is largely seen as the man who represents the stability of the country.
    "He works with his head and not his feet, he deserves to win, he built this country, there is the subway, the highways, the tramway and buildings, Algeria is the only country that gives free apartments to people," said Fouad , a young father.
    Six opposition parties boycotted Thursday's vote, saying it would not reform a system mostly closed to change since the FLN's one-party rule in the early post-independence years.
    Bouteflika's main rival and former ally Ali Benflis said on Thursday, he would not accept the results that he dismissed as a fraud.
    Bouteflika won 90 percent of the vote in 2009 and 85 percent in 2004, when Benflis alleged fraud on an "industrial" scale.
    Voting passed mostly peacefully, but in two villages east of Algiers, gendarmerie troops fired tear gas and clashed with youths who tried to disrupt voting.
    Riots and protests are common among younger Algerians frustrated over joblessness, economic opportunities and housing shortages.
    A small movement, called Barakat or "Enough" in local dialect, emerged after Bouteflika's re-election bid to call for peaceful change.
    But large-scale political protests are rare.
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