Who is Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the eighth president of Algeria?

On Friday, the Algerian authorities announced the election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune president of the country. 

After he obtained four million and 950 thousand votes, thus becoming the eighth person to reach the pyramid of the republic since the country's independence in 1962.

According to the Independent National Electoral Authority of Algeria, Tebboune won 58.15 percent of the votes of Algerian voters who cast their ballots, on Thursday, amid street protests.

Tebboune returned to the forefront recently, after the race for the presidency started, but the man who will become the first elected president after the mob that toppled Abdelaziz Bouteflika has previously held several positions during the past decades.

Tebboune was born in Naama province, in the west of the country, in 1945, and graduated from the National School of Administration in 1965, and then assumed at a later stage political, parliamentary and ministerial duties.

In 1991, Tebboune took over the first ministerial portfolio in his political career, and he became Minister of Local Communities (Municipalities), but he soon left this position in 1992.

Tebboune participated in the government of the era of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, assumed the Ministry of Culture and Communication between the years 1999 and 2000, then returned again to take over the Ministry of Local Communities (Municipalities) between 2000 and 2001, then served as Minister of Housing and Urban Planning between 2001 and 2002.

Ten years later, and in 2012 in particular, Tebboune returned to the Ministry of Housing in the government of Abdelmalik Sellal, and after the May 2017 parliamentary elections in Algeria, Bouteflika appointed Tebboune to succeed Sellal, in a move considered a surprise to the country's political elites, and the government he headed was appointed. On the twenty-fifth of May.

But adoption was left for less than three months at the head of the government, as it was sacked by Bouteflika, and Ahmed Ouyahia was appointed to him on August 15, 2017.

Five candidates received the recommendation of the Constitutional Council to participate in the race to enter the presidential palace, they are the president of the Future Front Abdelaziz Belaid, the candidate of the Freedom Party Ali benflis, the free candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the head of the National Construction Movement Abdelkadir Bengrina, and the acting Secretary-General of the assembly National Democratic Azzeddine Mihoubi.

The five election candidates met with criticism and rejection in the street, and they were seen as an extension of the Bouteflika regime, but supporters of the electoral process, defended the vote and considered it the only way out of the political crisis in the country.

Tebboune..And promises of reform

In his announced electoral platform, Tebboune promised to promote democracy, freedom of the press, the empowerment of women, the launch of important reforms, and pledged to launch a broad review of the country's constitution.

Tebboune promised to support the role of youth, raise the minimum wage, abolish the tax on low salaries, and develop the country's infrastructure.

Tebboune, while casting his ballot on Thursday, said that the December 12 elections "is an opportunity for a new republic based on youth."

And it is expected that the streets and other Algerian cities will witness on Friday the demonstrations that are forty-three since the Algerian popular movement that ousted President Bouteflika from power began, and it will be the first after the holding of these elections that cause widespread controversy.

While the Algerian capital witnessed intense security tensions, several demonstrations erupted in many Algerian cities on Thursday, calling for the cancellation of elections, and they were more severe in the cities of eastern Algiers, like Bouira, Bejaia, and Tizi Ouzou, which resulted in sabotage of voting offices and the closure of most of them, as they were registered in these states The lowest participation rate, not exceeding one percent.