Algerian Presidential Election: The Failure of an "Algerian Arab Uprising"?

On 7 September 2024, Algeria hold early presidential elections. The citizens had to choose their new president through a vote that seem to be already sealed. Abdelmadjid Tebboune was elected for a second term with 94.7 percent vote. Amnesty International has described the state's climate as one of “repression of peaceful dissent”.

Ten years after the “Arab Uprisings”, a peaceful mass protest movement abruptly emerged in Algeria. In an astonishing show of force, the so-called Hirak exponentially grew from a few thousand protesters in the capital in early February 2019 to hundreds of thousands of protesters in all major Algerian cities. Inspired by the peaceful regime changes in Tunisia in 2011 and in Sudan after the dismissal of Omar el-Bashir in 2019, the protesters called for a regime change and for an establishment of a democratic system based on the rule of law.

With the Hirak, Algeria’s civil society demonstrated remarkable energy and creativity, both online and in the streets. Actors from civil society including judges, feminists, artists, journalists, independent trade unionists, and academics worked together to create a powerful political dynamic. This dynamic was not matched by capable politicians, however. And as the movement failed to transform itself into a formal political actor, the existing state elites – and in particular the military establishment – came to dominate the political scene.

> Learn more through Sciences Po Center for International Studies (CERI) special dossier titled “The Disappearing of the Algeria's Hirak” (March 2024) and edited by Luis Martinez and Rasmus Alenius Boserup. Through six thought-provoking contributions, it gathers specialists of Algerian politics, economy, military, media and society.