Serious blunders and violations of electoral law by President-candidate Tebboune

There was nothing religious about the preaching. It was strictly political and concerned the presidential election on 7 September. The instruction came from the Ministry of Religious Affairs in a circular distributed by the directors representing the Ministry in the country's departmental capitals. 

Political discourse in mosques was banned by the government in power in the early 90s. ‘It was at the root of the civil war that ravaged Algeria for more than a dozen years, leaving 250,000 people dead and 20,000 missing. Not to mention the many children born of rapes committed by members of terrorist groups, and the thousands of orphans’ we kept repeating, while calling for the doors of mosques to be closed to politics. 

On Friday 23 August, the same authorities opened the doors of the mosques to political discourse, urging the population to turn out en masse to vote on 7 September. The call is not for people to vote for one of the three candidates in the race. The lucky winner is known in advance. It is the current occupant of the El-Mouradia palace, who intends to remain there for another five years. For the decision-makers, who organise tailor-made elections so as not to jeopardise their interests, the most important thing is a massive turnout at the polls to make people forget the boycott of the December 2019 elections. 

Tebboune presents no medical certificate or declaration of assets

This serious blunder is not the only one to be recorded by the candidate president. It gets worse. The free candidate, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has blatantly violated electoral law. It began as soon as he announced his candidacy for a second term. 

As soon as his candidacy was announced, President-candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune sent his Director of Cabinet at the Office of the President of the Republic, Boualem Boualem, and the Director General of Communications, Kamel Sid Saïd, to the headquarters of the Independent National Election Authority (ANIE) to submit his application. This was the first violation of the organic electoral law. Neither the press, nor the competing candidates, let alone Mohamed Charfi, President of ANIE, had the slightest reaction. 

Yet this is a profoundly serious transgression. The President has no business employing state officials. But this is only the beginning. The collection of sponsorships is already highly dubious. Candidate Saïda Neghza made this clear. You cannot claim to be collecting 300,000 signatures across 58 wilayas of the country when you have not seen any mass movement in front of the town halls to legalise the signatures. Never mind... 

The candidate's side can talk all it wants to justify these infringements. But where there is no explanation and the violation of the law is most clear is when the presidential candidate fails to submit ‘a medical certificate issued to the person concerned by sworn doctors’, as required by article 139 of the electoral law. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, 79, suffers from a lung problem caused by smoking. He has difficulty breathing after any kind of effort. He also has a foot problem. During his visit to Türkiye, he was seen to have the greatest difficulty walking upright. This is in addition to his sinusitis.

Another violation of electoral law, and not the least, is the absence from his file of his declaration of assets. Article 139-16 of Organic Law 16-10 of 25 August 2016 on the electoral system requires all candidates for the supreme magistracy to declare their real estate, movable assets, and bank accounts in Algeria and abroad. 

These last two violations (the medical certificate and the declaration of assets) were extended to other candidates who were not required to provide these documents. 

However, the biggest scandal of all, which is the scandal of all the presidential elections, is the flight of capital. In the eyes of the law, the evasion of 2.4 million Euros illegally taken out of Algerian territory and seized at Charles-De-Gaule Roissy airport constitutes an economic crime. Abdelmadjid Tebboune bears primary responsibility for this crime. The silence imposed on the Algerian media about this scandal, as if Algeria were not concerned, and the appalling silence of the judiciary, which has not ordered an investigation into the affair, speak volumes about the responsibility of Tebboune and his clan. 

‘Tebboune is a free candidate, yes... but not yet! But not free to break the law and do as he pleases’, commented a dejected Algerian citizen.