Algerian Supreme Court excludes candidates of three parties opposing Tebboune from the election race

A new controversy surrounds the electoral process to be held in Algeria on 7 September. In addition to the uncertainty over whether the current president, Abdelmajid Tebboune, would stand for re-election, which was cleared up with the official announcement made on 18 July, there is now the exclusion of several candidates for alleged irregularities.

According to Al Arab, three of Tebboune's opposition candidates appeared before an investigating judge of the Algiers Judicial Council to hear the results of an investigation in which they are accused of practices contrary to electoral law, including bribery and the buying of signatures in the files submitted to the electoral authority. These are serious offences that could even lead to prison sentences.

Thirteen candidates excluded

The excluded candidates are Belkacem Saheli, representing the Republican Alliance, a coalition of seven parties; Saida Nezha, a businesswoman and president of the Algerian employers' association; and Abdul Hakim Ammar.

Appeals by all three to the Constitutional Court to stand in the elections were rejected. In total, up to 13 candidates opposed to Tebboune have been excluded from the electoral race, for various reasons.

Among them are such prominent names as Zoubida Assoul of the Union for Change and Progress party, a lawyer who defends several political prisoners of the Tebboune regime. Assoul was one of the first to announce her candidacy for the elections, which was finally rejected by the Independent National Authority for Elections (ANIE) for lack of popular support.

This string of exclusions on administrative grounds and even accusations of fraud and bribery provoked the reaction of more than a dozen representatives of the Algerian opposition, who denounced "the authoritarian climate" surrounding the Algerian election campaign, described the elections as "a farce" and denounced that Tebboune's government "continues to trample on the will of the people".

Tebboune and two others

In the end, the 7 September elections will be decided between only three candidates: the current president, Abdelmajid Tebboune, who is running as an independent candidate; Abdelaali Hasani Sharif of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Movement of Society for Peace (Hams); and Youssef Aouchiche of the centre-left Socialist Forces Front (FFS).

Analysts believe that the two candidates running against Tebboune represent only token opposition, and that the current president will have no problem renewing his mandate.

The 7 September elections will be the first to be held in Algeria since Tebboune came to power. The current president came to office through a controversial election, held in 2019, which was characterised by a low turnout of just under 40 %.

Alleged buying of signatures

According to the findings of the investigation conducted by the Algerian Judicial Council and advanced by the attorney general, Lofti Boudjemaa, some of the excluded candidates allegedly resorted to buying signatures of civil servants to meet administrative requirements.

The attorney general told the press that candidates paid between 20 and 30,000 dinars (between 150 and 200 dollars) in exchange for recommendations that would allow them to stand for election.

One of the candidates finally allowed to run, Abdelaali Hassani, denied the involvement of his elected representatives in these practices. In Hassani's words, "we have not received any information about the summoning of any elected representative of the movement to investigate the case, and the Movement for a Society for Peace has always denounced these actions and will continue to fight for the success of the elections with full transparency and integrity".

For his part, the head of the Voice of the People party, Lamine Osmani, who supports the independent candidate Tebboune, also distanced himself from the accusations, pointing out that there has been no recorded case of involvement of representatives of his party in the buying of signatures to run in the elections.

The investigation continues

Speaking to the press, Prosecutor General Boudjemaa assured that the Judicial Police is following up and expanding the preliminary investigation opened "to arrest and prosecute all persons who were closely or remotely involved in these events under the supervision of the Prosecutor's Office of the Criminal Pole, which specialises in anti-corruption cases".

Algerian electoral law criminalises vote rigging and the offering of gifts, benefits, services and promises.