Algerian presidential election, 2009

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Algerian presidential election, 2009
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  Bouteflika (Algiers, Feb 2006).jpeg Luisa Hanoune en 2014.jpg
Nominee Abdelaziz Bouteflika Louisa Hanoune
Party FLN PT
Popular vote12,911,705604,258
Percentage90.24%4.22%
President before election

Abdelaziz Bouteflika
FLN

Elected President

Abdelaziz Bouteflika
FLN

Algeria
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This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Algeria

A presidential election was held in Algeria on 9 April 2009.

Algeria country in North Africa

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. The capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north of the country on the Mediterranean coast. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, and the largest in Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia, to the east by Libya, to the west by Morocco, to the southwest by the Western Saharan territory, Mauritania, and Mali, to the southeast by Niger, and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The country is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes (counties). It has the highest Human development index of all non-island African countries.

Contents

Removal of term limit

The Council of Ministers announced on 3 November 2008 that a planned constitutional revision would remove the two-term limit on the Presidency that was previously included in Article 74, thereby enabling President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a third term. [1] The People's National Assembly endorsed the removal of the term limit on 12 November 2008; only the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) voted against its removal. [2]

Abdelaziz Bouteflika President of Algeria

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, GColIH is an Algerian politician who has been the fifth President of Algeria since 1999. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1963 to 1979. As President, he presided over the end of the bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002, and he ended emergency rule in February 2011 amidst regional unrest. He was the president of the United Nations General Assembly for a term in 1974.

Peoples National Assembly lower house of the Algerian Parliament

The People's National Assembly, abbreviated APN, is the lower house of the Algerian Parliament. It is composed of 462 members directly elected by the population. Of the 462 seats, 8 are reserved for Algerians living abroad. Members of the People's National Assembly are directly elected through proportional representation in multiple-member districts and serve terms lasting five years at a time. The last election for this body was held on 17 May 2017. This body and of the Algerian Parliament is seen as nonrepresentative of the Algerian people's interest because of the presidency, which controls the majority of governmental power. The minimum age required for election into the APN is 28.

Rally for Culture and Democracy political party

The Rally for Culture and Democracy is a political party in Algeria. It promotes secularism (laïcité) and has its principal power base in Kabylie, a major Berber-speaking region. Some consider it to take the position of a liberal party for the Berber-speaking population in Algerian politics.

Candidates

Thirteen candidates had submitted papers to contest the election, but only six were approved: [3]

National Liberation Front (Algeria) political party in Algeria

The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was the principal nationalist movement during the Algerian War and the sole legal and the ruling political party of the Algerian state until other parties were legalised in 1989.

Louisa Hanoune Algerian politician

Louisa Hanoune is the head of Algeria's Workers' Party. In 2004, she became the first woman to run for President of Algeria. Hanoune was imprisoned by the government several times prior to the legalization of political parties in 1988. She was jailed soon after she joined the Trotskyist Social Workers Organisation, an illegal party, in 1981 and again after the 1988 October Riots, which brought about the end of the National Liberation Front's (FLN) single-party rule. During Algeria's civil war of the 1990s, Hanoune was one of the few opposition voices in parliament, and, despite her party's laicist values, a strong opponent of the government's "eradication" policy toward Islamists. In January 1995, she signed the Sant'Egidio Platform together with representatives of other opposition parties, notably the Islamic Salvation Front, the radical Islamist party whose dissolution by military decree brought about the start of the civil war.

Although some urged former President Liamine Zéroual to run, he said in a published statement on 14 January 2009 that he would not, while also suggesting that it was not in the best interests of democracy for President Bouteflika to run for a third term. [4]

Liamine Zéroual President of Algeria

Liamine Zéroual is an Algerian politician who was the fourth President of Algeria from 31 January 1994 to 27 April 1999.

RCD President Saïd Sadi announced on 15 January 2009 that the RCD would not participate in the election, which he described as a "pathetic and dangerous circus", saying that to participate "would be tantamount to complicity in an operation of national humiliation". [2]

Saïd Sadi Algerian politician

Saïd Sadi is an Algerian politician who was President of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) until 2012.

Bouteflika announced his independent candidacy for a third term at a rally in Algiers on 12 February 2009, [5] and he officially submitted his candidacy on 23 February, shortly before the deadline. [6]

Results

e  •  d  Summary of the 9 April 2009 Algerian presidential election results
Candidates and partiesvotes%
Abdelaziz Bouteflika – National Liberation Front 12,911,70590.24
Louisa Hanoune – Workers' Party 604,2584.22
Moussa Touati – Algerian National Front 330,5702.31
Djahid Younsi – Movement for National Reform 176,6741.37
Ali Fawzi Rebaine – Ahd 54 133,1290.93
Mohammed Said – Party of Justice and Liberty 132,2420.92
Invalid votes1,042,7277.25
Total (turnout 74.54%)15,351,305 
Source: presse-dz.com

The official turnout was disputed by the opposition, some claiming a turnout as low as 16%. [7] Informal US Embassy observations placed it at "25-30 percent at most." [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "Algérie: vers la suppression de la limitation des mandats présidentiels" AFP, 3 November 2008 (in French).
  2. 1 2 "Algerian opposition pulls out of 'pathetic' presidential vote", AFP, 15 January 2009.
  3. ↑ "Algerian poll contenders unveiled", BBC, 3 March 2009.
  4. ↑ William Maclean, "Algeria ex-leader will not run for top job", Reuters (IOL), 14 January 2009.
  5. ↑ "Bouteflika seeks third term in office", Reuters (IOL), 12 February 2009.
  6. ↑ "Algerian president submits candidacy", AFP, 23 February 2009.
  7. ↑ "Rachad: 16 % was the real participation rate in the elections of 9 April 2009". Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
  8. ↑ Bouteflika reelected in heavily managed contest Wikileaks
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