Algeria Not Satisfied with President Tebboune, No Real Opposition
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Hashim Sheikh
- . December 16, 2023
- . Update: December 16, 2023 5:12 pm
With elections around the corner, Algerians hope a new dawn will come through the 2024 elections for Algeria, a country where politics has long been dominated by a elite group in the military and the National Liberation Front.
In Algeria, the electoral process has never been transparent and elections are distorted by fraud. Crackdown on media and peaceful street protests are rampant. The North African country is riddled with problems.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune came to power in 2019 with promises to reduce corruptive index of the country’s politics, employment opportunities, freedom of expression, education, healthcare and transparency etc. Four years on, Algeria still has these problems.
President Tebboune Wants to Win 2024 Elections
77-year-old President Tebboune wants to run for a second term in the 2024 elections. But he hasn’t announced his candidacy. Analysts say as long as Tebboune keeps the support of the army, chances for him in 2024 elections are high.
Moreover, he doesn’t have any real political opposition since that start of the crackdown on the 2019 protest movement. There’s no one challenging him. And the protest was short-lived because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, the UN Special Rapporteur, after the end of his September visit to Algeria said the Algerian government must address the climate of fear caused by a string of criminal charges against individuals, associations, trade unions and political parties under overly restrictive laws, including anti-terrorism legislation.
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Algeria is Energy Rich, Poor Politics
Because of the poor politics, the foundations of economic freedom in Algeria are neither well-established, nor strongly protected. According to Heritage, the judiciary’s vulnerability to political interference and corruption undermines sustainable economic development.
Despite the energy boom, economic conditions in Algeria are worsening as inflationary pressures rise and non-hyrdrocarbons sectors stagnate. This has negative impact on people’s purchasing power, heightening citizen’s alienation.
Experts say the absence of economic opportunities make the young population vulnerable and prone to radicalization, jihadi recruitment with the growth of terrorist threats in the Sahel region. Today’s Algeria is run by an authoritarian state, the same military class, but more repressive.
