The newly elected Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was sworn in Thursday amid the Hirak protest movement debates in response to his offer of dialogue to end a months-long political crisis.

Mounted guards in traditional red tunics, white turbans and hooded cloaks lined the way into the Palais des Nations as Tebboune entered, Algeria’s flag fluttering overhead.

Tebboune, a former prime minister who casts himself as a reformer, was elected last week in a vote the opposition regarded as a charade intended to keep the ruling elite in power.

The army saw Thursday’s election as the best way to end 10 months of weekly mass protests that helped oust Tebboune’s predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April, and restore a political order in which it holds sway.

Official figures showed 40% of voters took part on Thursday as protests and strikes paralyzed some cities and towns, with Tebboune winning 58% of votes.

State media presented even that low level of turnout as vindicating the decision to hold the election, though with no outside observers monitoring the vote, many Hirak supporters regarded the figures as suspect.