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Voting under way in Algeria’s presidential election

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Voting under way in Algeria’s presidential election

No major changes expected with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune expected to win despite concerns about low turnout.

Algerians are voting in a presidential election in which incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune is expected to easily win a second term.

Polling stations opened at 8am (07:00 GMT) on Saturday in the North African country which has more than 24 million registered voters. More than 800,000 Algerians abroad, many in France, began voting on September 2.

Tebboune, 78, whose government is accused of using new laws to stifle dissent, is heavily favoured to defeat his two challengers – Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, 57 and Youcef Aouchiche, 41.

While 15 candidates tried to enter the race, only Hassani Cherif and Aouchiche gathered enough signatures to qualify. Neither seriously opposes the military establishment widely seen as having called the shots since the 1960s.

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Campaign rallies for the election, which Tebboune’s office moved up from its originally planned date in December, have struggled to generate enthusiasm, partly due to the summer heat.

Political commentator Mohamed Hennad said the election’s outcome is a foregone conclusion due to the campaign’s restrictive conditions.

It “is nothing more than a farce”, he wrote in a post on X.

Eyeing turnout

Tebboune’s main challenge is to boost turnout, which was less than 40 percent when he won his first term in 2019.

Turnout was even lower in the country’s 2021 legislative elections, at about 30 percent.

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“The president is keen to have a significant turnout,” said Hasni Abidi, an analyst at the Geneva-based CERMAM study centre. “It’s his main issue,” he told the AFP news agency.

The low turnout figures in 2019 and 2021 came amid the Hirak pro-democracy protests that toppled Tebboune’s predecessor, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, before they were quashed with ramped-up policing and the jailing of hundreds.

What are the issues?

With young people making up more than half of Algeria’s population of 45 million, all candidates are targeting their vote with promises to improve living standards and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons.

Tebboune has touted his economic successes from his first term, including more jobs and higher wages in the country, Africa’s largest exporter of natural gas.

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With a second term, Tebboune is expected to keep policies aimed at strengthening the country’s energy exports and enacting limited pro-business reforms while upholding lavish subsidies and keeping a tight rein on internal dissent.

“Previously investors had no confidence to invest in Algeria, but that’s beginning to change as our laws are amended and our image changes,” economist Boubaker Sellami told Al Jazeera.

Tebboune’s two challengers have promised to grant Algerians more freedoms.

Aouchiche says he is committed “to release prisoners of conscience through an amnesty and to review unjust laws”, including on media and terrorism.

Hassani Cherif has advocated for “freedoms that have been reduced to nothing in recent years”.

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Preliminary results could be made public as early as Saturday night, with the electoral authority, ANIE, set to announce the official results on Sunday at the latest.

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Armed men fire on Haiti hospital reopening, killing at least 2

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Armed men fire on Haiti hospital reopening, killing at least 2
At least two people were killed and others injured on Tuesday when armed men opened fire on a group of journalists who gathered for a government press conference set to announce the reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital, a witness to the attack told Reuters.
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US citizen imprisoned in Russia given new 15-year sentence in wake of espionage conviction

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US citizen imprisoned in Russia given new 15-year sentence in wake of espionage conviction

A Russian-born U.S. citizen who was already behind bars in Russia on a bribery conviction has been handed a second sentence for espionage.

Eugene Spector was sentenced to a new 15-year term for his espionage conviction, according to Russian news agencies. Spector was born and raised in Leningrad, Russia, but later moved to the U.S. and became a citizen.

A Moscow court brought espionage charges against Spector in August of last year, although details surrounding the case were not made publicly available.

RUSSIA ARRESTS US CITIZEN ON ESPIONAGE CHARGES: REPORT

Eugene Spector, a Russian-born U.S. citizen already imprisoned in Russia on a bribery conviction, has been handed a second 15-year jail term for espionage. (AP)

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The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of a U.S. citizen in Russia being sentenced and that it was monitoring the situation.

Spector, a former executive at a medical equipment company in Russia, was sentenced in September 2022 to three and a half years in prison for enabling bribes to an aide of former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

WALL STREET JOURNAL’S EVAN GERSHKOVICH REVEALS SHADOWY KREMLIN FIGURE BEHIND IMPRISONMENT IN RUSSIA

Jail

A Moscow court brought espionage charges against Spector in August of last year. (iStock)

The aide, Anastasia Alekseyeva, was sentenced to 12 years in April for accepting bribes of two expensive overseas vacation trips.

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Dvorkovich was a deputy prime minister under former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in 2012 to 2018. Dvorkovich is currently head of the international chess federation FIDE.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan: Emergencies ministry

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Passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan: Emergencies ministry

BREAKING,

Passenger plane crashed near the city of Aktau.

An passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, the Central Asian country’s Emergencies Ministry said in a statement.

Fourteen people had survived the crash and had been hospitalised, according to the local health officials.

“At the moment, 14 survivors have been taken to the regional hospital, including five in intensive care,” the health ministry’s regional department said in a statement. The Emergencies Ministry said fire services had put out the blaze

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Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau.

Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.

Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

More to follow.

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