In Algeria, a New Election Contrary to Democratic Aspirations

On September 7, Algerians are called to vote in an early presidential election, where incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and two other candidates are in the running. This election, whose outcome seems predetermined, aims to consolidate the regime’s domination, despite a deep legitimacy crisis that has worsened since 2019.

Abdelmadjid Tebboune assumed the presidency in December 2019 following an election massively contested by the peaceful Hirak protests and widely boycotted at the polls with an official participation rate of 39.88%, the lowest since independence.

The first term of President Tebboune was marked by systematic harassment and relentless repression against thousands of peaceful citizens and activists, increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and the press, and the political instrumentalization of the judiciary under strict control of the executive and security services. So far, all state resources have been used to stifle popular dissent and bury any inclination towards democratization.

The shrinking of civic space is unprecedented in at least two decades. To date, more than 200 people are arbitrarily detained for expressing critical opinions towards the authorities or for their peaceful activist activities. Public demonstrations have become almost impossible to organize, including by recognized political parties, since spring 2021, the date of the last Hirak protests.

Algeria’s autonomous civil society has been suffocated and reduced to a shadow of its former self. Two of its key organizations, the Youth Action Rally (RAJ) and the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH), were arbitrarily dissolved by the administrative judiciary between 2021 and 2022, and two opposition political parties, the Socialist Workers’ Party (PST) and the Democratic and Social Movement (MDS), were suspended between 2022 and 2023, for an

indefinite period. Moreover, dozens of members of these associations and parties have also been subjected to criminal prosecution, with several forced into exile.

The slogan of the “New Algeria” under the head of state, supposedly signaling a break with the practices of Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s regime, also marked the end of a press that enjoyed relative freedom before 2019. Journalists and media outlets are bearing the brunt of repression, as seen with journalist Ihsane El Kadi, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for simply doing his job. With critical press sidelined, what remains is public audiovisual media tightly controlled by the executive and economically fragile private media dependent on public advertising revenue allocated by a government agency.

The highly restrictive laws governing political parties, associations, and the freedoms of assembly and demonstration have yet to be revised to align with international standards and Algeria’s commitments. As for the recent laws on information and the press and the law on trade union activity, they are characterized by numerous “red lines” that make restriction of freedom the norm rather than the exception.

Such a situation gravely infringes on fundamental rights and freedoms and makes real political pluralism and the effective exercise of the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly impossible—conditions essential for any free and fair election. The 2024 election campaign is once again taking place in an authoritarian climate, despite the democratic aspirations expressed by the Hirak.

Abstention as a Political Act

Since December 2019, the authorities have not stopped tightening criminal legislation, introducing new repressive provisions. The June 2021 revision of the Penal Code introduced the most emblematic amendment of this strategy of repression: the expansion of the definition of “terrorism” to include the Hirak’s demands for democratic transition and separatism.

This same reform instituted an official list of individuals and entities considered “terrorists,” on which any citizen can be listed without even having been tried.

Thus, two organizations that had no legal status in Algeria, Rachad and the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), have been officially classified as “terrorist” entities. Since then, hundreds of people, sometimes with no connection to these movements and acting peacefully, have been prosecuted for “apology of terrorism” or “belonging” to one or the other of these organizations. Accusations of “terrorism” are not only widely used by Algerian courts in the context of political repression, but they also reopen wounds related to the conflict of the 1990s.

Legally, the official list of individuals and entities considered “terrorists” contradicts, in some aspects, the right to the presumption of innocence, guaranteed by the Constitution and international conventions to which Algeria is a party. Nevertheless, it was declared constitutional by the Constitutional Council, the predecessor of the Constitutional Court.

This does not bode well for the upcoming election, as this same Court, a third of whose members are appointed by the President of the Republic, plays an important role in overseeing the regularity of the presidential election.

Despite the repression and the stifling of political life, the democratic aspirations expressed by Algerians during the Hirak remain relevant. A large majority of citizens refused to vote in the December 2019 presidential election, the November 2020 constitutional referendum, and the June 2021 legislative elections, believing that the conditions for free and fair elections were not met. In such circumstances, abstention is a significant political act.

However, the right to vote is more than ever being treated during this presidential election as a mere administrative formality, rather than as a political act, a cornerstone of citizenship and democracy. In these conditions, the legitimacy crisis and the absence of the rule of law will only worsen, to the detriment of a society that has demonstrated its political will to write a new page in Algerian history: that of a democratic state governed by the rule of law.

Signatories:

Collective of Families of the Disappeared in Algeria (CFDA)

Committee for the Preservation of the LADDH

Libertés Algérie

IBTYKAR Movement

International Response

Tharwa N’Fadhma N’Soumeur

Coordination of Maghreb Human Rights Organizations (COMED)

EuroMed Rights

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

Euro-Mediterranean Solidarity Forum (FORSEM)

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

World Organization Against Torture (OMCT)

SHOAA for Human Rights