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Algeria/Presidential electionsBack
[Published: Thursday April 17 2014]

Algiers, 17 April . -(ANA) - Algerians are casting their votes in presidential elections that are likely to lead to Abdelaziz Bouteflika's fourth mandate, despite wide expections of a low turnout and amid calls for a boycott with the opposition warning of rigged results.

Bouteflika (pictured is viewed by opposition as unfit for fourth after suffering a stroke last year and appears to be ailing. He is  expected to win election because he has the blessing of the military which remains the ultimate power in this country of over 36 million inhabitants.

More than 260,000 police have been deployed to protect the 50,000 polling booths opening on Thursday across Africa's largest country, where 23 million Algerians are eligible to vote in a contest between six candidates.

Bouteflika, 77, who is seeking to extend his 15-year rule despite chronic health problems, is the firm favourite.
He has appeared only rarely on television in recent months, looking frail, after suffering a mini-stroke last year which confined him to hospital in France for three months.

But with oppositon parties and youth activists loudly calling on Algerians to snub the poll, and many questioning his ability to rule, Bouteflika faces the risk of a damaging low turnout.

Local media have doubted Bouteflika's ability to cast his vote himself, which was then denied by a team of loyalists he had tasked to take charge of his electoral campaign, on his behalf.

His intention to seek re-election was announced in February, prompting derision from his critics.

Youth protest group

Algeria, which has largely escaped the massive political alterations brought about by the "Arab Spring", has witnessed sporadic election-related violence in the weeks leading up to the polls.

Youth protest group Barakat (Enough), a rare public expression of the anger and frustration felt by some Algerians towards political authoritarianism, was founded just two months ago specifically to oppose the president's bid for a
fourth term.

Police violently dispersed a demonstration the group organised in Algiers on Wednesday and arrested some of its members.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both voiced concerns about efforts by the authorities to restrict freedom of speech ahead of the vote, while Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday highlighted the difficulties faced by journalists trying to cover it.

Out of the total six candidates, the president's main rival, former prime minister Ali Benflis who ran against Bouteflika in 2004 but lost heavily, said fraud will be his "main adversary" on Thursday.

Benflis warned that he would "not keep quiet" if the election is stolen.

Despite the sometimes scathing criticism levelled against him in the independent media, Bouteflika remains popular with many Algerians.

He is credited for helping to end the devastating civil war of the 1990s, and containing the social unrest that spread to Algeria in January 2011 by offering political reforms, lifting a 19-year state of emergency and raising wages. -(ANA)

AB/ANA/ 17 April 2014  - - -

 


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