2004 Algerian presidential election

Algerian presidential election, 2004

8 April 2004

Nominee Abdelaziz Bouteflika Ali Benflis Party RND FLN Popular vote 8,651,723 653,951 Percentage 85.0% 6.42%

President before election Abdelaziz Bouteflika RND Elected President Abdelaziz Bouteflika RND

Presidential elections were held in Algeria on 8 April 2004. Incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was re-elected with 85% of the vote.

Candidates

• Ali Benflis: candidate of the National Liberation Front (FLN)
• Abdelaziz Bouteflika: candidate of a coalition including the Islamist Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP) and the National Rally for Democracy Assembly (RND), as well as a dissident faction of the National Liberation Front (FLN)
• Abdallah Djaballah: candidate of the Islamic El Islah Movement
• Ali Fawzi Rebaine: candidate of the Ahd 54 Party
• Louisa Hanoune: candidate of the Trotskyist Workers' Party
• Said Sadi: candidate of the secularist Rally for Culture and Democracy

Conduct

There were about 130 official foreign observers in Algeria for these elections, which followed more than a decade of civil conflict. Delegations of observers came from the Arab League, the African Union, the United Nations, the European Parliament and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

An OSCE spokesman said its small election monitoring team observed no obvious electoral fraud, and that the election, while not perfect, was excellent by regional standards and that it is "pretty clear" the results reflected the views of the Algerian people.

However, the Kabyle population boycotted the elections following the Arouch directives, only 10% (officially) of them went to vote.

Results

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Abdelaziz Bouteflika	National Rally for Democracy	8,651,723	85.0
Ali Benflis	National Liberation Front	653,951	6.4
Abdallah Djaballah	Movement for National Reform	511,526	5.0
Said Sadi	Rally for Culture and Democracy	197,111	1.9
Louisa Hanoune	Workers' Party	101,630	1.0
Ali Fawzi Rebaine	Ahd 54	63,761	0.6
Invalid/blank votes		329,075	–
Total		10,508,777	100
Registered voters/turnout		18,097,255	58.1
Source: IFES