“I can not predict the elections' turnout,” says Algerian interior minister

Algerian interior minister Yazid Zerhouni said it is difficult to assert in advance that the turnout of the April9th presidential elections will reach 80 percent. “Yet, some indicators show that the turnout will be high.”, he surmised.

• “The number of people who submitted requests to correct their registration as voters is estimated at 170,000 compared to 24,000 in 2004 elections,” Zerhouni told the Algerian national radio.
• “More than two million people participated in festivals and popular welcoming ceremonies for the candidates. In the 2006 presidential elections, the number was one million and 300,000 only,” he added.
• Asked about possible large-scale boycott, the minister said he did not have “the crystal ball to predict the turnout.”
• “No need to live with the complex of turnout because if we compare the Algeria’s previous elections results to those of more democratic countries, we will find out that the turnout in Algeria is higher,” he added.
• He said the government gave the observers the opportunity to know about all elections-related laws. “They visited some provinces, called all the candidates and saw all the taken measures.
• Speaking about the RCD’s act of raising a national flag in place of the national flag, Zerhouni described those behind the act as “perturbed for their failure.”
• He added that the law criminalises that act. “The law and the Constitution impose on every political institution and national association to raise the national flag in all their headoffices.”