President joins opponents in claiming election irregularities

ALGIERS After being declared the winner of Algeria’s election, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune joined his two challengers in criticizing the country’s election authority for announcing results that contradicted earlier turnout figures and local tallies. The claims of irregularities mar what had earlier appeared to be a landslide victory for the 78year-old head of state.

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The country’s independent election authority announced Sunday that Tebboune had won 94.7 per cent of Saturday’s vote, far outpacing his challengers Islamist Abdelali Hassani Cherif, who received only 3.2 per cent and socialist Youcef Aouchiche, who got just 2.2 per cent. Hours later, Tebboune joined his opponents in questioning the reported results with the three campaigns jointly issuing a statement accusing the country’s election chair of announcing contradictory results.