Algeria election results are being questioned by the opposition candidates and the president himself

Algerians expected an uneventful election that would bestow President Abdelmadjid Tebboune a second term. Instead, they got the president himself calling into question the vote count and legal challenges from his opponents alleging fraud.

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

The country's constitutional court has until next week to rule on the appeals from Tebboune's two opponents. But it's anyone's guess how questions about the election will be resolved, whether tallies will be re-tabulated and what it means for Tebboune's efforts to project an image of legitimacy and popular support.

Algeria’s National Independent Election Authority, or ANIE, published figures throughout election day showing a low turnout. By 5 p.m. on Saturday, the reported turnout in Algeria was 26.5% — far fewer than had voted by that time in the election five years ago. After unexplained delays, it said “provisional average turnout” by 8 p.m. had spiked to 48%.

But the next day, it reported that only 5.6 million out of nearly 24 million voters had cast ballots — nowhere near 48%.

It said 94.7% voted to re-elect Tebboune. His two challengers — Abdelali Hassani Cherif of the Movement of Society for Peace and Youcef Aouchiche of the Socialist Forces Front — won a dismal 3.2% and 2.2% of the vote, respectively.

Cherif, Aouchiche and their campaigns subsequently questioned how results were reported and alleged foul play including pressure placed on poll workers and proxy voting.

None of that surprised observers.

But later, Tebboune's campaign joined with his opponents in releasing a shared statement rebuking ANIE for “inaccuracies, contradictions, ambiguities and inconsistencies,” legitimizing questions about the president's win and aligning him with popular anger that his challengers had drummed up.

Cherif and Aouchiche filed appeals at Algeria's constitutional court on Tuesday after their campaigns further rebuked the election as “a masquerade.”

Turnout is notoriously low in Algeria, where activists consider voting tantamount to endorsing a corrupt, military-led system rather than something that can usher in meaningful change.

Urging Algerians to participate in the election was a campaign theme for Tebboune as well as his challengers. That's largely due to the legacy of the pro-democracy “Hirak” protests that led to the ouster of Tebboune's predecessor.

After an interim government that year hurriedly scheduled elections in December 2019, protesters boycotted them, calling them rigged and saying they were a way for the ruling elite to handpick a leader and avoid the deeper changes demanded.

Tebboune, seen as the military's preferred candidate, won with 58% of the vote. But more than 60% of the country’s 24 million voters abstained and his victory was greeted with fresh rounds of protests.

His supporters had hoped for a high turnout victory this year would project Tebboune's popular support and put distance between Algeria and the political crisis that toppled his predecessor. It appears that gambit failed after only 5.6 million out of 24 million voters participated.

In 2019, millions of Algerians flooded the streets for pro-democracy protests that became known as the “Hirak” (which means movement in Arabic).

Protesters were outraged after 81-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced plans to run for a fifth term. He had rarely been seen since a 2013 stroke left him paralyzed. The Hirak was jubilant but unsatisfied when Bouteflika resigned and top businessmen were charged with corruption. Protesters never coalesced around leaders or a new vision for Algeria, but called for deeper reforms to foster genuine democracy and remove from power members of what Algerians simply call “the power" — the elites from business, politics and the military thought to run the country.

Hirak protesters rejectedTebboune as a member of the old guard and interpreted most of his earlyovertures as empty gestures meant to placate them.

Before, during and after Tebboune's election, protests continued. Then, COVID-19 hit and they were outlawed. Authorities continued to repress freedom of expression and imprison journalists and activists made famous by the pro-democracy movement, though protests restarted in 2021.

Figures from the Hirak denounced the 2024 election as a rubber stamp exercise to entrench Algeria's status quo and called for another round of boycotts to express a deep lacking of faith in the system. Many said the high abstention rate in Saturday's election proved Algerians were still aligned with their criticisms of the system.

“Algerians don’t give a damn about this bogus election,” said former Hirak leader Hakim Addad, who was banned from participating in politics three years ago. “The political crisis will persist as long as the regime remains in place. The Hirak has spoken.”

Nobody knows. Few believe the challenges could lead to Tebboune’s victory being overturned.

Op-ed columnists and political analysts in Algeria have condemned ANIE, the independent election authority established in 2019, and its president Mohamed Charfi, for bungling elections that the government hoped would project its own legitimacy in the face of its detractors.

Hasni Abidi, an Algeria analyst at the Geneva-based Center for Studies and Research on the Arab World and Mediterranean, called it “a mess within the regime and the elite” and said it dealt a blow to both the credibility of institutions in Algeria and Tebboune's victory.

Some argue his willingness to join opponents and criticize an election that he won suggest infighting among the elite thought to control Algeria.

“The reality is that this remains a more fragmented, less coherent political system than it ever has been or than people have ever assumed,” said Riccardo Fabiani, International Crisis Group’s North Africa director.

Though Tebboune will likely emerge the winner, the election will reflect the depth of support for his political and economic policies five years after the pro-democracy movement toppled his predecessor.

Algeria is Africa’s largest country by area. With almost 45 million people, it’s the continent’s second most populous after South Africa to hold presidential elections in 2024 — a year in which more than 50 elections are being held worldwide, encompassing more than half the world’s population.

Thanks to oil and gas revenue, the country is relatively wealthy compared to its neighbors, yet large segments of the population have in recent years decried increases in the cost of living and routine shortages of staples including cooking oil and, in some regions, water.

The country is a linchpin to regional stability, often acting as a power broker and counterterrorism ally to western nations as neighboring countries — including Libya, Niger and Mali — are convulsed by violence, coups and revolution.

It’s a major energy supplier, especially to European countries trying to wean themselves off Russian gas and maintains deep, albeit contentious, ties with France, the colonial power that ruled it for more than a century until 1962.

The country spends twice as much on defense as any other in Africa and is the world's third largest importer of Russian weapons after India and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's Arms Transfers Database.

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)

A voter poses for a photo with her inked finger after casting her ballot inside a polling station during the presidential elections, 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)

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)

Ballots showing the three presidential candidates are placed on a table inside a polling station during the presidential election, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Algiers, Algeria. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

Presidential candidate and leader of the FFS party, Youcef Aouchich, casts his ballot inside a polling station during the presidential elections, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Tizi Ouzou, 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)

DENVER (AP) — Sean Payton made the gutsiest call in Super Bowl history, ambushing Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts with a stunning onside kick coming out of halftime at Super Bowl 44 to nab the New Orleans Saints' only Lombardi Trophy.

Payton also ushered in the second chapter of his coaching career by attempting an onside kick against the Las Vegas Raiders in the Denver Broncos' opener last year.

It failed when cornerback Tremon Smith touched the football just before it had traveled the requisite 10 yards, and that may very well have been the reason Payton lost in his Denver debut. But it proved that he hadn't abandoned his risk-taking disposition when Greg Penner hired him out of Fox's broadcast studio.

The NFL's new kicking rule s have taken away coaches' ability to pull a fast one on unsuspecting opponents while also making them think long and hard about trying one when desperate times call for it.

Teams can only try it in the fourth quarter now and only if they're losing. And, most importantly, they have to declare their intention to try an onside kick.

Two teams tried and failed Sunday.

Green Bay’s Evan Williams recovered the Colts' onside kick with 1:47 remaining and the Packers ran out the clock in their 16-10 victory over Indianapolis.

Shortly thereafter, Minnesota's Nick Muse recovered the 49ers' onside kick with 1:12 left and Sam Darnold kneeled out the clock in the Vikings' 23-17 win.

It appeared the Broncos would become the third team to try it when they cut the Pittsburgh Steelers' lead to 13-6 on Wil Lutz's chip-shot field goal with 1:54 remaining in Denver.

But Payton elected instead to kick off even though he only had one timeout left and rookie quarterback Bo Nix has yet to find the end zone with any of his 77 passes, which rank as the third most in the league.

“We spent a lot of time going through it back and forth,” Payton said after Nix's second interception as time expired sealed the Broncos' loss. "It was just weighing the odds versus recovering an onside kick or getting the ball back with 26 seconds.

"We chose to kick off.”

The Steelers ran three times before newly signed punter Corliss Waitman, who played for the Broncos in 2022 and earned a “ petty game ball ” along with quarterback Russell Wilson and receiver Brandon Johnson afterward, booted a beauty of a 54-yarder to the Denver 10.

Marvin Mims Jr. returned the punt 9 yards, leaving the Broncos with 81 yards to go in just 9 seconds.

Josh Reynolds caught Nix's first down pass for 13 yards and as he was getting tackled he pitched it to Mims, who raced out of bounds at the Denver 34 with 1 second to spare.

With 66 yards to go, Nix lined up in the shotgun for one final play, stepped up and zipped his 35th pass of the game over the middle where Damontae Kazee easily intercepted it at the Steelers 40.

Shunning the onside kick was one of several eyebrow-raising calls by Payton.

Down 13-0 with 10:45 remaining, the Broncos were facing fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 16 when Payton sent Lutz out for the chip-shot field goal that got the Broncos on the scoreboard but left them with the same two-score deficit.

“Time-wise we felt like we were still in a good position, looking at the clock," Payton explained.

The Broncos' biggest bugaboo has been their ineffective ground game. With scramble totals of 35 yards and 25 yards, Nix has been Denver's leading rusher in both of its games.

With rookie Audric Estime sidelined Sunday, the Broncos promoted running back Tyler Badie from their practice squad and on his first carry he reeled off a 16-yard gain midway through the second quarter.

He never got another handoff even though from that point on, Javonte Williams carried nine times for 10 yards, Jaleel McLaughlin ran once for 7 yards and Nix gained 5 yards on a designed run.

Asked Monday why Badie didn’t get another chance after providing the Broncos with their longest run of the game and second-longest of the season behind Nix’s 23-yard scramble in Seattle, Payton said, “It's about trying to find touches for the third back.”

“It’s much easier with a rotation of two,” Payton continued. "Getting the third back involved, sometimes it’s special teams, sometimes in the passing game, and it was a good run by him. It’s something we’re — you take notice of it, though. It’s something as a play-caller, as someone who’s looking at the game, I’ve got to be able to see that."

Baseball has its spitball and football has its ... puke pass?

At one point during Green Bay’s win over the Colts, Packers coach Matt LaFleur asked quarterback Malik Willis why he didn’t throw on a particular play. Willis explained that center Josh Myers had just vomited on the football.

This story has been corrected to show that the Saints won Super Bowl 44, not 34.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton talks during the post game news conference after an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton talks to line judge Julian Mapp (10) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)