Algeria avoided irreversible damage of a potential bloody showdown between security and protesters when it carried out its first presidential election since the removal of long-time ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power last April. Former Prime Minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a 74-year-old technocrat, was declared the winner of the December 12 vote, which was marked by a mass boycott but no major violence, despite protesters shutting polling stations in most of the ...