Amnesty International denounces steady erosion of rights in Algeria

The Algerian presidential elections took place amid a steady erosion of human rights and a relentless crackdown on opposition figures, Amnesty International said.

Tebboune unsurprisingly won the vote with more than 94% of votes.

“In recent years, Algeria has experienced a steady erosion of human rights through the authorities’ dissolution of political parties, civil society organizations, and independent media outlets, alongside a spike in arbitrary arrests and prosecutions using trumped-up terrorism charges,” said Amjad Yamin, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Alarmingly, this reality has remained bleak in the run-up to the elections,” he said.

Eleven major opposition figures wrote in an open letter in July that “Algeria is in a more critical situation than before” and that the president had fostered an “authoritarian climate”.

In August, 60 political activists were arrested, mostly from the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) party.

Last week, Fethi Ghares, a stalwart of the 2019 uprising and leader of the Democratic Social Movement party, banned last year, was detained along with his wife for “insulting the president”.

A crackdown of civil liberties led the regime to suspend summer festivals and ban pro-Palestinian marches fearing the protests would derail to denounce the regime.

The Algerian regime is still thumbling at any call that would re-ignite calls for democracy following the example of the 2019 Hirak that prevented Bouteflika from a fifth term.