Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s victory of a 3rd presidential term at the Algerian elections held on April 9th was a surprise to no one. His re-“re-election” for another 5 years with a whopping 90 percent of the votes was even less surprising. After all, he has already ruled for two consecutive terms and his party and political supporters were the major driving force behind passing the constitutional amendment that abolished the two-term limit for a president of the republic. What is surprising, however, is the turnout rate released by the Algerian interior ministry, showing that 75 percent of Algerians cast their ballots this past week, compared to 58 percent turnout during the elections of 2004.
Political observers and analysts, and anyone familiar with Algerian politics, know that over the past decade Algerians’ participation in political or civil society in general has been very limited compared to the size of the population and the size of the country’s social and economic ills.
Following the suspension of the 1992 elections that led to a brutal civil war, scores of Algerian politicians, intellectuals, civil activists, and regular citizens who were involved in any aspect of public or civic matters were killed. The violence and fear scared many people away from participation in politics or civil society; not to mention the sluggish economy and high levels of unemployment and immigration to Europe and the Gulf countries.
Many Algerians expected their government to publicize higher turnout numbers, but didn’t expect them to be pumped to such a high level. Some Algerian newspapers, like Le Matin, say that the high numbers were not necessarily advertised for Algerians only, but more so for other countries. Europe and the international community are more concerned about illegal immigration and terrorism coming from Algeria than they are with fixing the economy and advancing political reforms. Algeria is moving towards an autocracy, but in the eyes of the world, it is only doing what many other African and Arab countries have been doing for decades.
The question remains, is it possible to solve the problem of immigration without tackling the problem of education? Is it possible to deter young people from joining terrorist cells without addressing the growing unemployment rates? When will it become clear that security, economic development and social prosperity are intertwined?
Published Date: April 16, 2009