According to the figures made public, Teboune won with nearly 95 percent of the votes. But just a few hours later, he joined his two opponents – the moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani and the socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche – and accused the country's electoral authority of announcing contradictory results in a joint statement.
On Sunday, the electoral authority reported that only 5.6 million of the country's nearly 24 million inhabitants had cast their votes. But earlier, when the polling stations closed, they had reported 48 percent voter turnout. No explanation for the large discrepancy was given, however.
In a country where previous elections have been carefully choreographed events, and many Algerians expected Tebboune to win in a relatively uneventful manner, the sudden turn of events caused great surprise.
It is still unclear what the questioning of the election will lead to.
