Algeria: A presidential election in a climate of repression

Amine*, a 45-year-old former Algerian journalist who left his country for Paris two years ago, recalls with nostalgia the wave of hope that swept Algiers' editorial offices in February 2019 during the Hirak, the popular uprising that led to the overthrow of long-time autocrat Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

“A breath of freedom blew over the country,” Amine, who was working for a media company in the Algerian capital at the time, told Middle East Eye.

“At demonstrations, on television, in newspapers and on social networks, opposition politicians, community activists and ordinary citizens dared to be very critical without fear of reprisals,” he added.

However, this trend quickly came to an end when mass arrests of Hirak activists who supported a democratic transition and opposed the presidential elections organized by the ruling establishment occurred, Amine said.

Following the election of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in December 2019, a controversial vote, arrests of journalists, students, activists and members of the opposition continued.

Last April, the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD), an association founded during the Hirak protest by a group of lawyers, families of prisoners and intellectuals, published a list of 228 people who had been “arbitrarily arrested and sentenced to prison” and called for their release.

The appeal, co-signed by other human rights NGOs including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), followed the announcement by the Algerian authorities that they would hold early presidential elections on 6 September.

“A wall of silence hangs over civil society. Since 2019, activists, journalists and human rights defenders have been prosecuted and convicted for exercising their fundamental rights, often with harsh sentences, particularly on the basis of unfounded accusations of belonging to terrorist organizations,” the NGOs wrote.

They added that the authorities had also increased arbitrary legal action against civil society organizations, opposition political parties, trade unions and independent media.

Detentions, closures and travel bans

Among the 228 prisoners listed by the CNLD are two well-known Hirak activists, Brahim Laalami, 32, and Mohamed Tadjadit, 30, who have each spent nearly 60 months in prison since 2019. They are accused of “making excuses for terrorism.”

In 2022, authorities also arrested journalist Ihsane El Kadi, who was sentenced to seven years in prison the following year. Ihsane El Kadi was accused of receiving foreign funds for political propaganda. He denies these charges.

Radio M and the news site Maghreb Emergent, two news platforms founded by El Kadi, were also closed.

“The situation is catastrophic because civic space and freedoms have been restricted since the beginning of the Hirak regime. [and] There are strong reasons to believe that the situation may get worse,” Nissaf Slama, then Amnesty International researcher, told MEE last March on the fifth anniversary of the Hirak.

Lawyer Aissa Rahmoune, Secretary General of the International Federation for Human Rights and former member of the CNLD, shares these concerns.

“Today it is clear that the authorities remain true to their authoritarian logic. They fear every dissenting voice, every opposition.”

– Aissa Rahmoune, International Federation for Human Rights

“Today it is clear that the authorities remain true to their authoritarian logic,” he told MEE.

“They fear any dissenting voice, any opposition, even peaceful, to Algerian public affairs, particularly on the issue of the democratic construction of the rule of law,” he added.

A recent example is the arrest of opposition activist Yacine Mekireche in early August. An arrest warrant was issued against him for spreading hate speech and discrimination on social media and for calling for a gathering without weapons.

A few days earlier, CNLD lawyer Mourad Zenati was notified of a ban on entering Tunisia at a border post, where he wanted to spend his honeymoon.

The so-called ban on leaving the national territory (ISTN), which is rarely justified by a court decision, is far from an exception and affects hundreds of activists, journalists, businessmen and politicians, lawyer Abdelghani Badi told MEE earlier this year.

Rahmoune, who fled to Tunisia with his family in 2021 before seeking refuge in France, had a narrow escape himself. Arrested three times by police for his participation in the defense of Hirak prisoners, he felt threatened and reluctantly chose exile.

About a year after his departure, the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, of which he was co-president, was dissolved.

The same fate befell the Youth Action Rally (RAJ), an association promoting human rights that played a prominent role in the Hirak movement.

The activities of two left-wing opposition parties, the Socialist Workers Party (PST) and the Democratic and Social Movement (MDS), were also suspended during the same period and their party headquarters were closed.

“Laws hostile to freedom”

“The current regime is fully aware of its authoritarian nature,” Rahmoune told MEE, condemning authoritarian laws that justify the repression of political opponents.

In 2021, the Algerian authorities amended the penal code to classify it as a terrorist act and sabotage: “Any act directed against the security of the state, national unity, stability and the normal functioning of institutions”, through acts that “in any way tend to or incite to seize power or to change the system of government by unconstitutional means and undermine the integrity of the national territory.”

The amendment also created “a national list of terrorist individuals and organizations that commit acts of terrorism and sabotage.”

In response to the change in the law, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) published a report criticising the vague wording of the terrorism definition and denouncing that since 2019 “a growing number of activists, journalists and human rights defenders have been prosecuted on terrorism charges”.

Algerian elections: A foregone conclusion as the president's rivals remain outside

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After visiting Algeria in 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, pointed out in a report the “use of repressive, unconstitutional laws dating back to the Hirak regime to suppress peaceful dissent.”

For example, Article 97 of the Penal Code prohibits assemblies of any kind, and the 2012 laws on political parties and associations make the establishment of an NGO or a political party subject to prior government approval.

In addition, another amendment to the penal code in 2020 threatens prison for journalists who spread “false information,” without specifying what is meant by this.

A new milestone in restricting freedom of expression was reached in 2023 with the adoption of an information law that prohibits Algerians with dual nationality from owning or owning a share in a media company in Algeria.

In addition, the penal code was amended again in May last year to impose heavy penalties, up to and including life imprisonment, on any person who discloses confidential information and documents related to national security.

The new penal code also provides for prison sentences of up to ten years for anyone “who knowingly participates in attempts to demoralize the National People’s Army or other security forces with the aim of damaging national defense or security.”

“The Algerian authorities continue to maintain a stranglehold on public space,” Nadege Lahmar, a member of Amnesty International’s Algeria research team, told MEE.

And the closer the presidential elections get, the tougher the repression will become, she added.

“The Algerian authorities continue to have a stranglehold on public space”

– Nadege Lahmar, researcher at Amnesty International

In recent weeks, arrests for crimes of opinion have become more frequent, especially against opposition leaders. On August 20, Atmane Mazouz, leader of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), whose power base is in Kabylia, was arrested and later released.

Meanwhile, Karim Tabbou, leader of the Social and Democratic Union, a party not recognized by the authorities, was informed that the conditions of his judicial supervision had been tightened. Tabbou, a key figure in the Hirak, is no longer allowed to publish political comments or participate in debates.

And Fethi Ghares, coordinator of the MDS, was placed under judicial control after a brief arrest.

“We observe that the pre-election context is characterized by continued restrictions on the political engagement of the opposition, journalists, civil society organizations and other citizens seeking to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” Lahmar said.

In addition to President Tebboune, two other candidates have qualified for the election: Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, President of the Society for Peace Movement, and Youcef Aouchiche, Secretary General of the Front of Socialist Forces.

But observers say a victory for the incumbent is almost certain.

Workers' Party Secretary General Louisa Hanoune, who was imprisoned from 2020 to 2021 for “undermining military authority” and “conspiracy against state authority” in connection with the Hirak, preferred to withdraw her candidacy, denouncing “unfair conditions” and a “regressive and undemocratic legal framework”.

For Rahmoune, the conditions for a fair election are indeed far from being met.

“The presidential election in this atmosphere of lack of freedom and non-exercise of citizenship is an operation whose purpose is to respect the institutional calendar, without lacking any democratic spirit,” he told MEE.

* The name has been changed for security reasons.