Algeria’s new president-elect, 74-year old Abdelmadjid Tebboune was the favourite of the military among the five candidates from the ruling clique which a massive protest movement that has shaken Algeria for the past ten months is aimed at overturning.
By Hicham Alaoui & Lemine Ould M. Salem
If a long experience in power is enough to make a good president, Algeria would have to look no further.
This vast North African country with a population of 40 million and rich in hydrocarbons has a new president with a solid career in government.
As the alleged favourite of General Gaïd Salah, army chief and Algeria’s de facto strongman, Abdelmadjid Tebboune was declared winner of Thursday’s presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Authority (ANIE).
With 58.15 percent of the votes he left only modest pickings for his four opponents according to the provisional figures announced by the ANIE.
His rivals, all “children of the system” like him, collected 17.38 percent for Abdelkader Ben Krina, 10.55 percent for Ali Benflis, 7.26 percent for Azeddine Mihoubi and 6.66 percent for Abbdelaziz Belaid respectively.
A graduate of the National School of Administration in 1969, this former Wali (Governor) embodies the old state administration, which, together with the army, constitutes one of the major pillars of the system in power in Algeria since independence.
The Mechria native, who was a wali for several regions such as Adrar, Batna, Tiaret and Tizi-Ouzou, he first joined the government in 1991 when he was appointed Minister Delegate to Local Authorities by Chadli Bendjedid.
After a seven-year spell in the wilderness, he was recalled in December 1999 by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, elected as President eight months earlier, as Minister of Communication and Culture.
Six months later, he returned to the position of Deputy Minister in charge of Local Authorities.
Appointed Minister of Housing and Urban Development in 2001, he was sacked in 2002.
However, this departure from the government did not prevent him from being appointed several times by President Bouteflika to represent him abroad.
Returning to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in 2012, he was then appointed Minister of Commerce in January 2017 on an interim basis, before being promoted four months later as Prime Minister.
According to the Algerian media, his then desire to clean up some sectors of the administration and economy pushed his opponents to demand his departure.
Under the purview of Bouteflika’s presidency, which finally ousted him after only three months, his sacking was justified by allegations that he had harassed business overlords in Algeria.
Two months after assuming office, the head of government with the shortest reign in Algerian history, had sent several formal notices to major local and foreign companies that had won major public infrastructure contracts, threatening to terminate contracts for projects running behind schedule.
Among these was a company owned by Ali Haddad, a young businessman who heads the powerful Forum of Business Leaders (FCE), an employers’ organization very close to Saïd Bouteflika, brother and highly respected advisor to the then head of state.
These measures have earned him some sympathy in some quarters.
This reputation as “oligarch breaker” and “Mr. Clean” did not prevent him from being a fervent defender of Bouteflika’s candidacy for a fifth term.
Bouteflika weakened by ill-health for several years was eventually forced to step down under the pressure of what would later become the hirak, a massive popular movement which has been shaking Algeria since February, calling for a radical overhaul of the country’s power structure.
Although as the ultimate beneficiary, Abdelmadjid Tebboune did everything possible to prevent this presidential election from taking place.
Without it being in a direct and personal way, the future new Algerian president is himself fingered in stories about “dirty money.”
During the election campaign, one of his close supporters was arrested and imprisoned for alleged corruption.
His own son is being held in connection with a money laundering case involving a man linked to a major cocaine seizure in May 2018 in the port of Oran in the west of the country.
HA/los/lb/as/APA