Algerian presidential election, 2004 - Definition and Overview

Presidential elections were held in Algeria on April 8, 2004. The incumbent president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was re-elected with 85.0 percent of the vote.

Candidates

• Ali Benflis: candidate of the originally socialist ex-sole-party Front for National Liberation (FLN)
• Abdelaziz Bouteflika: candidate of a coalition including the Islamist Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP) and the National Rally for Democracy Assembly (RND), as well as a dissident faction of the National Liberation Front (FLN)
• Abdallah Djaballah: candidate of the Islamic El Islah Movement
• Ali Faouzi Rebaine: candidate of the Ahd 54 Party
• Louisa Hanoune: candidate of the Trotskyist Workers' Party
• Said Sadi: candidate of the secularist Rally for Culture and Democracy

Results

Enrolled voters: 18,097,255
Votes cast: 10,508,777 (58.1%)
Invalid votes: 329,075 (3.1%)
Valid votes cast: 10,179,702

Comments

There were about 130 official foreign observers in Algeria for these elections, which followed more than a decade of civil conflict. Delegations of observers came from the Arab League, the African Union, the United Nations, the European Parliament and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

An OSCE spokesman said its small monitoring team observed no obvious fraud, and that the election, while not perfect, was excellent by regional standards and that it is "pretty clear" the results reflected the views of the Algerian people.