Bouteflika wins presidential elections with 90.24 percent

Algerian incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been re-elected with 90.24 percent of the vote, Algerian interior minister Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni announced on Friday.

• “Bouteflika has won 90.24 percent of the votes cast,” Zerhouni told a news conference, adding that turnout was 74.54 percent.
• Louisa Hanoune, the leader of the Workers’ Party, followed the winner candidate with 4.22 percent.
• Moussa Touati, Moussa Touati, head of the Algerian National Front got 2.31 percent while Djahid Younsi, the Secretary General of the Islamic el-Islah movement received 1.37 percent.
• Fouzi Rebaine, leader of the Ahd 54 party and the independent candidate Mohamed Said got less than 0.94 percent.
• Bouteflika: popular turnout is a lesson of democracy
• Re-elected President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said the Algerian people showed a “civilised behaviour” to the ideas which were presented in the poll. That constitutes a democratic “lesson” in Algeria.
• He considered the vote results as “sincere expression” of the attachment of the Algerian people to their country and their “free” will in choosing their president.
• He hailed “democratic convictions” showed by the five other candidates, saying “they did well by respecting equity principles.”
• Zerhouni: people exercised their right “freely”
• Algerian interior minister Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni said the Algerian people “exercised their right and accomplished their duty freely by voting for whom they see the most eligible as president.”
• “The results of this poll reflect the advancement and victory of the nation and the next generations to build democracy,” he added.