The economic and political situation in Algeria has been described as “chaos” just a few months before the 2024 presidential election.
According to a report issued by Menas Associates, the Algerian regime “was considering postponing the December 2024 presidential election,” although, “there has been no official statement and there is unlikely to be one for some time.”
The same report says that three factors could lead to the possible scenario of postponing the 2024 presidential election in Algeria, “Firstly, there is increasing pressure on President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to stand down. He is not favoured by: the army; the so-called ‘deep state’ dominated by the old Département du renseignement et de la sécurité (DRS); or it seems among a growing number of the regime who hitherto were deemed supportive of him.”
“Secondly, the military has not yet come up with an alternative candidate because they are overly preoccupied with fighting amongst themselves. A postponement of a further six months would give them more time to find a solution.” " the report adds.
For the third factor, the report says that “the regime does not know how such a radical action would be received. Domestically, a postponement would raise an outcry but one that would be containable because most Algerians no longer care about them. They know they are run by the regime for the regime so there has been a miniscule actual turnout rate in all recent polls.
Internationally, however, it could cause major problems for Algeria so the regime wants more time to assess how such a decision would be received, and especially by the US and France.”
The report concludes that “If the election is postponed the regime would need to justify the decision. The most likely pretext would be that — as a result of the current potentially hostile pressure on all its borders, and from further afield — the country is on a war footing or even in a state of war. It could also easily argue that it is in such a state of chaos that more time was needed to organise the election.”
