Marrakech – Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has officially announced his candidacy for a second term in the upcoming presidential election scheduled for September 7.
The announcement was made today during a televised interview with a local journalist and was posted on the presidency’s Facebook page.
Tebboune, who will turn 80 in November, stated that he was responding to the wishes of many political and non-political parties, organizations, and young people, and that the Algerian people will have the final say on the matter. He emphasized that all victories achieved are those of the Algerian people, not his own.
By making his announcement less than two months before the election, the incumbent president follows the Algerian tradition of revealing his intentions only eight to ten weeks prior to the vote.
The next step for Tebboune will be to collect citizen or elected official endorsements, as required by law, before submitting his candidacy file to the Constitutional Council.
But this process is widely considered a mere formality, as the presidency can easily mobilize support within the government and administration to gather the necessary signatures.
Tebboune was first elected on December 12, 2019, receiving 58.13% of the votes in an election largely boycotted by voters.
His rise to power was made possible by the Hirak revolution of February 2019, which forced then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to abandon his bid for a fifth term and resign.
Over the past five years, Tebboune has repeatedly evaded questions about his political future. He has cited reasons such as his hospitalization for COVID-19 treatment in 2020 and the war in Ukraine as factors that prevented him from fully delivering on his electoral promises.
On March 21, Tebboune surprised many by announcing that the election, originally scheduled for December 2024, would be held earlier. He later explained that this decision was based on technical considerations rather than political or military disagreements.
Since the announcement of the early election, the incumbent president has outlined potential measures he may take in the coming years, further reinforcing the belief that his re-election is already a foregone conclusion.
Tebboune has pledged to increase salaries and eventually double them by 2026-2027, and aims to raise Algeria’s GDP to over $400 billion by the same period, up from $247 billion in 2023.
