French President Jacques Chirac sent a message of congratulations on Friday to his newly re-elected Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika, promising France’s support for future economic and social reforms.
Chirac’s message of support was echoed by the leaders of Morocco and Tunisia, two of Algeria’s neighbours in north Africa, as well as by Jordan.
”It has fallen to us to pursue together the construction of a great partnership, one which reflects the hope of our two peoples and which can surmount the common challenges with which our countries are confronted in an increasingly uncertain world,” Chirac said.
”The vote on April 8 and the campaign that preceded it allowed the Algerian people to show their desire to advance on the road of democratic pluralism and economic and social modernisation,” Chirac said.
”In this enterprise France is at your side. Be sure that I and the French government are determined to match the reforms conducted under your authority with an ever deeper co-operation,” said the message released by Chirac’s office.
Bouteflika was elected on Thursday for a second five-year term with more than 83% of the vote. His main opponent, former prime minister Ali Benflis, has contested the results.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI also praised Bouteflika’s landslide victory, saying the Algerian people had shown renewed trust in ”the great statesman”, in a message broadcast by Map news agency.
Mohammed VI also said he was determined to work with Bouteflika toward better understanding and solidarity between the two countries as part of a greater ”Maghreb unity”, using the name given to north African Arab nations.
Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali formally congratulated his Algerian counterpart in a message published by the officials Tap news agency.
Ben Ali ”warmly congratulated” Bouteflika for the ”renewed trust placed in him by the Algerian people”.
He also wished Algeria success ”in its march towards progress and prosperity”, and hailed the ”solid relations of fraternity and cooperation” between the two north African states.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II also sent a telegram of congratulations to the re-elected president, according to the official news agency Petra.
The election marked a series of democratic firsts in Algeria, notably that the military, the traditional powerbroker in Algerian politics, pledged neutrality this time, and that candidates’ representatives were given vote tallies at the polling stations.
Some 120 international observers from the European Parliament, the Organisation of Security Cooperation in Europe, the Arab League, the United Nations and the African Union were present, another first for Algeria.
Pasqualina Neapoletano, a European Parliament observer, had told reporters on Tuesday that if one candidate won in a landslide, ”that will mean that something’s wrong”.
But a Belgian senator, Anne-Marie Lizin, on Friday said that: ”To us it was clear. What we saw during this election corresponds with European standards in terms of the procedures used.”
She told AFP that ”talk of major and significant fraud is not credible”. – Sapa-AFP