Bouteflika crushed rivals in silence
Photo: Echorouk
Candidate Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s victory attracted a large number of foreign media, as some newspapers considered his victory as maintaining the security and stability of Algeria, considering him the engineer of national reconciliation, while other newspapers described his victory as an exclusive event.
French “Le Figaro” French headlined in its Friday’s front-page “Bouteflika’s Tailor Made Presidential Elections”, and said that the Algerians were not surprised of his victory, as the results were already foregone.
“Le Monde” published an article about the participation rate, which said; “Candidates suspected the rate of 51%, and that the importance of the election does not lies in knowing the winner, but in the participation rate, and the rates that were announced by the Interior Ministry were astonishing, as the boycott seemed obvious, especially in major cities.”
“Addoustour” (constitution) Jordanian newspaper published; “Bouteflika wins and Benflis will not keep silent”, as the writer of the article said that the preliminary results of the Presidential Elections in Algeria, showed the progress of Bouteflika, while the former Prime Minister Ali Benflis, announced that he would not accept the results of the vote, and quoted the Secretary- General of the National Liberation Front Party, Amar Saadani, as saying that Bouteflika won at least 63% of the votes in the Presidential Elections”.
“Middle East Online” quoted Benflis as saying that he will not accept the results of the vote, pointing to having confirmed information about the occurrence of fraud, and accused the authorities of “conspiring against democracy, and working against the will of the people, and that the history of the seventeenth of April will remain in the memory of future generations, due to what happened from assault on the conscience of the nation by raping its will, and the theft of citizens’ voices and the confiscation of the popular will.”