Opposition candidates file court appeal questioning Algerian presidential election outcome

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The two opposition candidates who ran in Algeria's presidential race legally challenged on Tuesday the provisional result while harshly rebuking election officials and disputing the vote count.

Islamist Abdellali Hassani Cherif and socialist Youcef Aouchiche filed appeals with Algeria's Constitutional Court, taking the first step required to challenge the results of the election, which incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune won with a 94.7% share of the vote.

Algerian law provides the court 10 days from the announcement of provisional election results to rule on the appeals. A verdict could require the election authority to recalculate each candidate’s totals without calling into question Tebboune’s victory, for which he has already begun receiving congratulatory messages from Algeria’s foreign allies.

A day before lodging their appeals, both candidates took aim at Mohamed Charfi, the President of Algeria’s National Independent Electoral Authority (ANIE) for how the results of Saturday’s election were reported.

“President Tebboune didn’t need this stuffing. We knew he’d be reelected, but with these results, ANIE hasn’t done him any favors," Cherif said. “We want our votes — the votes of the people who voted for us — to be returned to us. I know it won’t change the outcome of the vote, but it will go down in history.”

Meanwhile, Aouchiche held a news conference where his campaign manager showed graphics that he said proved the results had been distorted and called the outcome a “shameful and gross manipulation."

"These results, which do not correspond at all to the number of votes communicated to us by the regional delegations of the same ANIE, are a disgrace for the Algeria of 2024, taking us back to the 1970s,” he said, referencing a time when the country's only legal political party ran its chosen candidate unopposed.

The two challengers have taken issue with discrepancies between the number of votes used to tally the results and the turnout figures that election officials published a day earlier. Late Sunday, Tebboune joined them in denouncing ANIE, aligning himself with popular anger that his challengers had drummed up against it.

In a shared statement, campaign managers for Tebboune, Aouchiche and Cherif called into question the results that ANIE had reported and how they didn't correspond with the regional figures that local authorities had reported.

“We inform national public opinion that inaccuracies, contradictions, ambiguities and inconsistencies were noted in the figures when the provisional results of the presidential election were announced by the chairman of the National Independent Election Authority,” they wrote.

The unprecedented turn of events marks a departure for Algeria, where elections have historically been a carefully choreographed affair by the ruling elite and military apparatus that backs it.

ANIE, the election authority, was established in 2019 in response to demands from pro-democracy protests whose weekly demonstrations were convulsing Algeria. Replacing Algeria's Interior Ministry, the independent body was designed to guarantee election integrity and transparency.

But its independence has been called into question, particularly after it reported Saturday that Tebboune had won with a larger share of the vote than Vladimir Putin in Russia's March presidential election.

In local media, commentators speculated Tebboune's decision to criticize the election authority after being announced the winner suggested a “clan war” among the shadowy ruling elite thought to run Algeria. Charfi, the top election official, was pilloried for acting as a “troublemaker” and having “discredited the election” in the regional daily newspaper the Republican East.

Five years after the pro-democracy “Hirak” movement brought about the ouster of Tebboune’s predecessor, for many Algerians the latest developments have shown how little has changed. Though the Hirak called for a boycott of the vote, its critiques of the system have been seen and heard after how the election played out, former Communications Minister Abdelaziz Rahabi said.

“What I feared and denounced has happened. The country has become ungovernable because of its failure to satisfy the Hirak's key demands and the shuttering of political and media spheres,” he wrote on X.

Presidential candidate of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), Hassani Cherif Abdelaâli, speaks at a press conference after the presidential elections results were announced, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Algiers, Algeria. After being declared the winner of Algeria's election, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune joined his two challengers in criticizing the country's election authority for announcing results that contradicted earlier turnout figures and local tallies. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

Presidential candidate of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), Hassani Cherif Abdelaâli, speaks at a press conference after the presidential elections results were announced, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Algiers, Algeria. After being declared the winner of Algeria's election, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune joined his two challengers in criticizing the country's election authority for announcing results that contradicted earlier turnout figures and local tallies. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

Supporters of presidential candidate of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), Hassani Cherif Abdelaâli, attend a rally on the last day of campaigning ahead of the presidential elections, in Algiers, Algeria, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

CORRECTS DATE - A voter prepares to cast his ballot inside a polling station during the presidential election, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Algiers, Algeria. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

Algerian president and candidate for re-election Abdelmajid Tebboune speaks after casting his ballot inside a polling station during the presidential elections, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Algiers, Algeria. (AP Photo)

Presidential candidate of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), Hassani Cherif Abdelaâli, speaks at a press conference after the presidential elections results were announced, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Algiers, Algeria. After being declared the winner of Algeria's election, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune joined his two challengers in criticizing the country's election authority for announcing results that contradicted earlier turnout figures and local tallies. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

Presidential candidate and leader of the FFS party, Youcef Aouchich, speaks at a press conference after the presidential elections results were announced, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Algiers, Algeria. After being declared the winner of Algeria's election, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune joined his two challengers in criticizing the country's election authority for announcing results that contradicted earlier turnout figures and local tallies. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

People walk past posters of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, after the presidential election results were announced, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in the capital Algiers. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

People walk past posters of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, after the presidential elections results were announced and Tebboune being declared the winner of Algeria's election, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in the capital Algiers. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — In Indian-controlled Kashmir, many people boycotted elections for decades in protest against Indian rule. But in the run-up to the local election beginning Wednesday, many are willing to buck that trend and use their vote to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party the power to form a local government in the disputed region.

The vote is the first in a decade, and the first since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in 2019 scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s special status and downgraded the former state to a federally governed territory. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in the region as an assault on its identity and autonomy.

“Boycotts will not work in this election,” said Abdul Rashid, a resident in southern Kashmir’s Shangus village. “There is a desperate need to end the onslaught of changes coming from there (India).”

The election will allow residents to have their own truncated government and a local parliament called an assembly, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule. The region’s last assembly election was held in 2014, after which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time ruled the region in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party.

But the government collapsed in 2018 after BJP withdrew from the coalition. Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.

This time, New Delhi says the polls are ushering in democracy after more than three decades of strife. However, many locals see the vote as an opportunity not only to elect their own representatives but also to register their protest against the 2019 changes.

Polling will be held in three phases. The second and third phases are scheduled for Sept. 25 and Oct. 1. Votes will be counted on Oct. 8, with results expected that day.

Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. Since 1947, the neighbors have fought two wars over its control, after British rule of the subcontinent ended with the creation of the two countries. Both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.

In 2019, the Indian-controlled part of the region was divided into two territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, ruled directly by New Delhi. The region has been on edge since it lost its flag, criminal code, constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs.

Multiple pro-India Kashmiri parties, many of whose leaders were among thousands jailed in 2019, are contesting the election, promising to reverse those changes. Some lower-rung separatist leaders, who in the past dismissed polls as illegitimate exercises under military occupation, are also running for office as independent candidates.

India’s main opposition Congress party, which favors restoration of the region’s statehood, has formed an alliance with the National Conference, the region’s largest party. Modi’s BJP has a strong political base in Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu that largely favor the 2019 changes but is weak in the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of anti-India rebellion.

“Our main concern is governance through local representatives. It will be good for us if the BJP forms the government here as it’s already in power at the center,” said Chuni Lal, a shopkeeper in Jammu city.

The vote will see a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly, with a chief minister at the top heading a council of ministers. But Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory” — a region directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament remaining its main legislator.

The elected government will have partial control over areas like education, culture and taxation but not over the police. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states in India. However, it will not have the special powers it enjoyed before the 2019 changes.

Last year, India’s Supreme Court endorsed the government’s 2019 changes but ordered New Delhi to conduct local polls by the end of September and restore Kashmir’s statehood. Modi’s government has promised to restore statehood after the polls but has not specified a timeline.

Elections in Indian-held Kashmir have remained a sensitive issue. Many believe they have been rigged multiple times in favor of local politicians who subsequently became India’s regional enforcers, used to incrementally dilute laws that offered Kashmir a special status and legitimize New Delhi’s militaristic policies.

In the mid-1980s, the region’s dissident political groups emerged as a formidable force against Kashmir’s pro-India political elite but lost the 1987 election widely believed to have been rigged. A public backlash followed, with some young activists taking up arms and demanding a united Kashmir, either under Pakistani rule or independent of both.

India insists the insurgency is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting, which most Kashmiri Muslims consider a legitimate freedom struggle.

Noor Ahmed Baba, a political scientist, said the outcome of the polls “is not going to change the dynamics of the Kashmir dispute” since it will end with a largely powerless legislature, but will be crucial for optics.

“If local parties win, it is going to put some pressure on the central government and perhaps delegitimize from a democratic perspective what has been done to Kashmir. But a BJP win can allow the party to consolidate and validate 2019 changes in the local legislature,” Baba said.

India’s ruling BJP is not officially aligned with any local party, but many politicians believe it is tacitly supporting some parties and independent candidates who privately agree with its stances.

The National Conference party says Modi’s BJP is trying to manipulate the election through independent candidates. “Their (BJP’s) concerted effort is to divide the vote in Kashmir,” said Tanvir Sadiq, a candidate from the National Conference.

The BJP’s national secretary, meanwhile, says his party’s former ally, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the National Conference are being supported by former militants. Ram Madhav said at a recent rally that they want to return the region to its “trouble-filled days.”

For residents whose civil liberties have been curbed, the election is also a chance to choose representatives they hope will address their main issues.

Many say that while the election won’t solve the dispute over Kashmir, it will give them a rare window to express their frustration with Indian control.

“We need some relief and end of bureaucratic rule here,” said Rafiq Ahmed, a taxi driver in the region’s main city of Srinagar.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party workers attend a rally, ahead of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in Jammu, India, Saturday Sep.7, 2024.(AP Photo/Channi Anand, File)

Former union minster and star campaigner of BJP Anurag Thakur and state in charge Ram Madhav wave to supporters during a campaign rally, after party candidates filed the nomination papers for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections at Nagrota outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, Sep.12, 2024.(AP Photo/Channi Anand, File)

Supporters of India's opposition Congress party, wave during an election rally at Dooru some 78 kilometers (49 miles) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir,Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

Supporters of Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, attend a public rally at Baramulla, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, speaks during a public rally at Baramulla, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

Policemen stop supporters of National Conference Party from accompanying their candidate during the filing of nomination papers for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in Jammu, India, Sept.10, 2024. (AP Photo/Channi Anand, File)

Supporters listen as India's opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, unseen, speaks during an election rally at Dooru some 78 kilometers south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, FILE)

Supporters of India's opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, shout slogans during an election rally at Dooru, some 78 kilometers south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

People watch from a window during a road show of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Arif Laigroo, in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah, center, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti, second right, and other leaders sit during an all parties meeting on restoration of the special status that was stripped last year from Indian-administered Kashmir, in Srinagar, India. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

A child looks on as Indian policemen frisk Kashmiri pedestrians during a surprise security check in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

Indian security forces walk past Indian flags and flags of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a motorcycle rally by BJP youth wing to the Kargil War Memorial passes through Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, July 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

Kashmiris shout slogans during a protest after Friday prayers against the abrogation of article 370, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Oct. 4, 2019.(AP Photo/ Dar Yasin, File)

A masked protester throws stone at Indian security forces during a protest after Eid prayers in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, June 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)

Kashmiris sit outside closed shops painted with graffiti during a curfew in central Srinagar, India, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)