Ex-Prime Minister Bouteflika is new Algeria president

Algiers - Abdelmadjid Tebboune, 74, took 58.15 per cent of the vote, trouncing his four fellow contenders without the need for a second-round runoff.

A former Algerian prime minister who served under deposed leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president of the protest-wracked country after a vote marred by unrest and low turnout, results showed on Friday.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune, 74, took 58.15 per cent of the vote, trouncing his four fellow contenders without the need for a second-round runoff, electoral commission chairman Mohamed Charfi announced.
Like him, they all served under the two-decade rule of Bouteflika, 82, who resigned in the face of mass demonstrations in April.
The deeply unpopular election had been championed by the army as a way of restoring stability after almost 10 months of street protests.
But on polling day Thursday, protesters defied a heavy police presence to hold a mass rally in the heart of the capital Algiers and smaller demonstrations in provincial cities.
All five candidates - who included another former prime minister, Ali Benflis, 75, and an ex-minister, Azzedine Mihoubi - were widely rejected by protesters as "children of the regime".
A record six in 10 Algerians abstained in the vote, Charfi said, the highest rate for a multi-party election since independence from France in 1962. Tens of thousands rallied in central Algiers, where police with water cannon and helicopters tried to disperse protesters.
On Friday, protesters prepared to take to the streets again in response to calls on social media under the slogan "Tebboune is not my president".
Said, a 32 year-old engineer from Bouira, said he had made the 100km journey to the capital to take part in Thursday's demonstration. "I spent the night here so I could demonstrate again today (Friday) and say we don't recognise their election or their president."
Pensioner Farida mocked the official figures from the electoral commission. "Someone added yeast to them to get them to rise," she said.
On Thursday, reporters saw a group of protesters storming a polling station in the capital, suspending voting there for about half an hour before police pushed them out again.
In central Algiers, young protesters slammed those casting their ballots as "traitors of the nation".
That earned a sharp rebuke from one man in his 80s: "I fought for the right to vote, so I'm voting for my country." Other voters said they had turned out because after nearly a year of turmoil it was time for a return to stability.
Sid Ali, a 48-year-old merchant in Algiers, said: "I support the Hirak (protest) movement but it needs to end. I lost 70 per cent of my turnover and many traders are in my situation."
Tebboune faces a difficult task to be accepted by the electorate in the country, where many citizens see the government as inept, corrupt and unable to manage the flagging economy.
He served in Bouteflika's government from 1999 to 2002 as communications and then housing minister. He returned as housing minister from 2012 to 2017 when he was briefly appointed prime minister. But he was sacked by Bouteflika after just three months for criticising some of the president's inner circle, many of whom are now in jail on corruption charges.
Since the start of the campaign, Tebboune has sought to distance himself from his years of service under Bouteflika. At his campaign headquarters, announcement of his victory was greeted with shouts of "The people and the army with Tebboune".
The "Hirak" street movement kicked off when Bouteflika announced in February that he would seek a fifth term in office.
Protesters have stayed on the streets ever since, demanding the total dismantling of the system that has ruled Algeria since independence.
The military high command, which long wielded power from the shadows, has been forced to take a more visible role and has pushed for the election as a way to withdraw behind the scenes again. Demonstrators have vented their anger at army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah, who has emerged as Algeria's de facto strongman since Bouteflika stepped down. 

• MENA