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13 April 2009 Algiers - The only woman to run
against Abdelaziz Bouteflika in his victorious
re-election bid on Saturday poured scorn on the
president's massive winning margin, saying it was
worthy of a banana republic.
Louisa Hanoune, who according to official results came
second in Bouteflika's landslide victory, scoring 4.22
percent to his 90.24 percent, dismissed the results of
Thursday's vote.
"I reject globally and in detail the official
results," said Hanoune, the secretary general of the
Workers' Party (PT), a day after their announcement by
Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni.
Hanoune, who insisted she had won at least 30 percent
of the vote, described the vote attributed to
Bouteflika as "worthy of the banana republics".
Not a single region in the country had escaped the
fraud, she added.
"They stuffed the ballot boxes and falsified the
documentation established after the vote," she said.
"A president elected in an election stained with fraud
is a fragile president," for those who had colluded in
the fraud would expect to be rewarded, she added.
Hanoune also cast doubt on the official turn-out of
the vote, which the interior minister put at 74.54
percent. Although the turn-out had been good, there
was no way it could have been that high, she insisted.
Her party estimated that it had been somewhere around
52 percent, she said. - AFP |