World

Algeria re-elects Bouteflika

Algeria re-elects Bouteflika

By AFP

ALGIERS: The constitutional council has officially declared Abdelaziz Bouteflika re-elected as president of Algeria for a third mandate with 90.23 percent of the vote on a turnout of 74.56 percent. Louisa Hanoune, the only woman candidate and leader of the Trotskyite Workers' Party, came a distant second in the April 9 presidential election with 4.5 percent of the vote, the council said late Monday. None of the other four candidates received more than 2.5 percent of the vote. Bouteflika, 72, first elected in 1999 then again in 2004, was to have stood down at the election, but he provoked outrage among opposition parties by proposing an amendment to the constitution which was rubber-stamped by parliament in November. Under the constitution Bouteflika was to be sworn in 'within the week following his election