Algeria's Tebboune to Hold Early Presidential Elections This Year

Algeria will hold its next election on September 7, which would give first-term President Abdelmajid Tebboune more than five months to campaign if he decides to run for reelection to a second term as head of the oil-rich country of North Africa.

Tebboune, who turns 79 in November, was elected in December 2019 following the resignation of longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika due to pro-democracy protests that erupted in February of that year.

Tebboune Announces Presidential Elections Date

Tebboune's office announced the date in a statement on Thursday after a meeting with a group that included senior members of Parliament, the constitutional court, and its independent election authority.

The only candidate to challenge Tebboune, who has not yet declared his plans to run for reelection as president of the 44 million-person nation grappling with increasing political and economic difficulties, is Zoubida Assoul of the Union for Change and Progress.

The statement surprised the country, and with elections in Algeria scheduled for December 2024, it raised speculation among observers about the rationale for the change.

Assoul is well-recognized for his work representing political prisoners. Three weeks ago, she announced that she was running because she was "confident in the possibility of changing the course of things."

Tebboune, backed by the military, took office in 2019, and this will be the first election to be held in September. In the wake of a popular movement that forced his predecessor to retire, he won a low-turnout election that December.

Activists invaded polling stations and abstained from voting to protest the election, calling for a more comprehensive political system reform. After winning with the support of a powerful general, Tebboune pledged to confront the protesters and fight the corruption they so despised.

During his nearly four-and-a-half-year reign, Algeria has increased punishments for activists and members of its once-vibrant free press who oppose the government. He initially freed several jailed youth involved in the "Hirak" rallies.

Even though the country's natural gas revenues increased at the beginning of the Ukrainian war, inflation, unemployment, and food shortages continued to plague its economy, and its state spending and the overall economy are still highly dependent on oil and gas.

In 2024, elections will be held in more than 50 countries, including Algeria.

UN-ALGERIA-DIPLOMACY-POLITICS-UNGA-TEBBOUNE — (Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Amnesty International Defends Protesters

Amnesty International, a rights watchdog, stated in February that Algerian authorities were still repressing the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression five years after the pro-democracy protests broke out.

In a report based on testimonies of detainees, families, and lawyers, the rights watchdog claimed that since the movement ended in early 2020 due to the COVID pandemic and a ban on protests, Algerian authorities had escalated their repression of peaceful dissent.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director, said that it is a tragedy that five years after brave Algerians took to the streets in their masses to demand political change and reforms, the authorities have continued to wage a chilling campaign of repression.