President of Algeria wins third term in office in landslide victory

April 11, 2009 According to official results, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the 72-year-old of Algeria, has been reelected to a third term as the country's leader in a landslide.

Yazid Zerhouni, the Algerian Interior Minister, stated that Bouteflika obtained 90.24% of the vote in the election, which was held on Thursday. Voter turnout was 74%, with some of the opposition parties the election amidst allegations of.

Zerhouni said at a news conference that the voter turnout was "exceptional", but insisted that the figures had not been manipulated, saying that anyone with evidence of fraud should take it to election officials.

Bouteflika's critics assert that the victory was a foregone conclusion &mdash; his opponents were not well known, and his campaign was well-funded. They continued to express outrage over a constitutional amendment adopted last November, which allowed Bouteflika to run for a third five-year term.

The second-place finisher in Thursday's polls was, representing the , who managed to take 4.22% of the vote. The 's Moussa Touati garnered 2.31% of the polls to take third place.

Bouteflika was first elected to be Algeria's leader in 1999. He was reelected in 2004 with 84.99% of the vote.