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00:00Well, it's the final day before Algeria's election, but there's no sense of suspense.
00:05Incumbent President Abdelmajid Tabun faces no real risk to his rule as he seeks a second
00:10term in office.
00:12One challenge, though, may be to boost turnout after he was elected in 2019 amid a record
00:18abstention rate over 60%.
00:20For more, we can speak to our foreign editor, Philip Turrell.
00:23Hello to you, Philip.
00:24First of all, take us through who the main candidates are.
00:27Right, well, first of all, just to pick up on what you were saying there, it's absolutely
00:31true.
00:3260% abstention rate in 2019, Abdelmajid Tabun was elected with just over 58% of the vote.
00:39I think really this time around, he would like a much more strong turnout, and I think
00:43that is probably the major challenge facing the three candidates.
00:47So who are they?
00:48Well, first of all, the outgoing president, Abdelmajid Tabun, he's the one who's really
00:55earmarked to win a second round.
00:57I'll go into that in a bit more detail in a minute.
01:01But he is president of Algeria since 2019, he's 78 years old.
01:05He's formerly with the FLN, the National Liberation Front, which now is backing him along with
01:10unions.
01:11His campaign slogan is independent.
01:13Now there are two other contenders also in this election.
01:16The first one is Youssef Elchish.
01:18He is the youngest contender, he's 41.
01:21He's a former journalist and a parliamentary attaché.
01:24He's running for the Socialist Forces Front, the FFS, which is the oldest opposition party
01:30in Algeria.
01:31His campaign slogan is a vision for tomorrow.
01:34And the third candidate out of three is Abdel Ali Hassani Sherif.
01:40He's 57.
01:41He is a member of the Movement of a Society for Peace, which is the largest Islamist party
01:46in Algeria.
01:49His campaign slogan is opportunity.
01:52But I think, as I was saying, many people in Algeria feel that this election has already
01:55been sewn up and these are just two token candidates and that it's a foregone conclusion
01:59that after voting takes place this weekend that Abdelmajid Tabouni is going to win a
02:03second term.
02:04What did we hear in terms of campaigning and pledges during the campaign?
02:09Well, there's not much as far as the outgoing president is concerned because he knows he
02:13has the support of the army.
02:14He knows he has the support of the institutions in Algeria.
02:19So he doesn't really need to go out and make this a strong campaign.
02:22He's brought the elections forward.
02:23They were supposed to be held in December.
02:24They're now being held in September.
02:28That is also a factor which may contribute to fewer people taking part in the ballot.
02:33What he does want to do is boost the minimum salary to or the minimum wage that people
02:37are being paid to about 20,000 dinars, which is about the average minimum wage in Algeria
02:43for the unemployed.
02:45Youssef Awosishi wants greater political and media freedom.
02:49That's the same as his rival, Abdelali Hassan Sharif, because they say the government had
02:53been too harsh in clamping down on free and fair information in Algeria and that critical
03:00media has seen its advertising withdrawn, for example.
03:04So they are both in favor of making that a lot more easy for people to obtain free and
03:08fair information.
03:09Youssef Awosishi wants to double the minimum wage.
03:12He wants to introduce a wage for housewives so they get paid for staying at home and also
03:17impose a wealth tax.
03:19As for Abdelali Hassan Sharif, he's really keen in setting up an independent judiciary
03:27for greater judiciary independence in Algeria, once again saying that under the current president
03:33there has been a step backwards in the way that the judiciary has been independent and
03:39free and fair.
03:40And that's something that he wants to reestablish if he's elected president.
03:43Yeah.
03:44You've also been following some of the complaints made by the opposition.
03:47What have they been saying?
03:48Well, there are many complaints from the opposition.
03:50They say that freedom of expression has been rolled back, as I was just saying, that critical
03:55media outlets have lost state advertising.
04:00There are three candidates who are keen to run in this election who have been placed
04:04under judicial investigation.
04:06They're accused of vote buying.
04:08The opposition says, well, this is purely a way of stopping them from running.
04:11This is all trumped up charges.
04:13A reminder that there were 16 candidates who wanted to run in this election.
04:16Only three have been declared as valid, the three that I was just talking about, including
04:21the outgoing president.
04:22So all of these measures that are really making a lot of Algerians think twice about turning
04:29out to vote this weekend, and I think that is the major question here.
04:33How are the Algerians going to vote?
04:35Is there going to be a massive abstention rate?
04:39Will it be the lowest for 20 years as it was in the last elections in June 2021?
04:44We'll have to wait and see.
04:46But I think that whatever the current president is trying to do, there's a luster feeling
04:51that this is a foregone conclusion and whoever people vote for, it's going to be the current
04:55president who has a new term in office.