Algerians are preparing, on Saturday, to choose a new president for the country after three weeks of electoral propaganda, while voting abroad began early.

The outgoing President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the head of the Movement for Society for Peace (the largest Islamist party) Abdelali Hassani, and the First Secretary of the Socialist Forces Front (the oldest opposition party) Youssef Aouchich are competing in the elections.

The Independent National Election Authority said last Tuesday: It is not possible, regardless of the means, to carry out electoral propaganda outside the specified period from August 14 to September 3 of this year, in accordance with Article 74 of the Election Law.

She added that Article 81 also explicitly stipulates that “it is prohibited to publish and broadcast opinion polls and voter intentions polls seventy-two (72) hours before the date of voting on national territory, i.e. Wednesday, September 4, 2024.”

On the last day of the campaign, the three candidates chose Algiers, the capital, to hold their last rallies.

Tebboune, who is supported by a party coalition led by the former ruling National Liberation Front, met with thousands of his supporters in a sports hall at the “July 5” Olympic Stadium in the capital.

The economic and social aspect received the largest share of Tebboune’s speech during this gathering.

He promised that the country's gross domestic product would reach $400 billion (currently $266 billion) over the next two years, in addition to the creation of 450,000 jobs and 20,000 investment projects.

During the election campaign, Tebboune organized only 4 rallies in Constantine, Oran, and Djanet, ending with the capital's rally, while the party coalition supporting him organized rallies and meetings throughout the country.

While Hassani, the candidate of the Movement for Society for Peace (Islamist), organized a gathering in the Harsha Hassan Sports Hall in the center of the capital, and pledged, upon his victory, to form a national consensus government that “includes all movements and does not exclude anyone.”

Hasani also promised to repeal the laws he said; It “restricts freedoms” and “is not compatible with the country’s constitution,” reforming the educational and banking system, and launching major projects to reconstruct the vast desert.

As for the gathering of supporters of the third candidate, Oshish, it was held in a hall in the popular Bab El Oued neighborhood in the center of the capital, during which he said: “The change that the people aspire to will only come through voting.”

In the absence of institutions specialized in conducting opinion polls in Algeria, most observers expect Tebboune to win a second five-year term.

On Monday, Algerian voters outside the country, who number more than 865,000 registered people, began voting in the early presidential elections scheduled at home on September 7.

There are 24 million and 351 thousand and 551 voters registered on the electoral lists, including 23 million and 486 thousand and 61 inside the country, according to the Election Authority