Residents hold portraits of missing relatives during a rally on the eve of the presidential elections in Algiers, yesterday. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has made reconciliation between Islamists and secular authorities the cornerstone of his presidency. He passed a Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation by referendum in 2005 that offers widespread pardons to both armed Islamists and security forces. But bitter distrust remains widespread.
Algeria (AP):
Algerians are looking largely with frustration or indifference towards a presidential election today, which is set to hand Abdelaziz Bouteflika another five years at the helm of this US ally with vast gas reserves, soaring youth unemployment and an active al-Qaida offshoot.
The left-wing opposition, many Islamist leaders, and the chief of al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa have called for a boycott of the vote and predicted fraud. Bouteflika, who was first elected with the army's backing in 1999 and again in 2004, enjoys support of all key government players.
Low-profile opponents
He faces five low-profile opponents, but none has successfully challenged his message of continuity and reconciliation after an insurgency that ravaged this North African country in the 1990s.
The president, 72, had the constitution changed last year so he could run again. There is so little suspense about the outcome that voter turnout is viewed as the key test of the election.
Bouteflika's campaign has told The Associated Press the president wants 60 per cent turnout, and has predicted he should win at least 75 per cent of votes cast.
National radio reported yesterday that participation was reaching about 75 per cent in some of the election bureaus for nomads in the southern Sahara Desert, who started voting early because of the huge distances they have to cross on camel to cast their ballot.
Elhaj Boualem, who sells fruits in the Casbah, the often-restive historic centre of the capital, Algiers, said he lost faith in voting since 1992, when authorities cancelled legislative elections that Islamists were poised to win.
That sparked a cycle of bloodshed that killed up to an estimated 200,000 people over the ensuing decade.
"I'll just cast a blank ballot," said Boualem. He said he was only voting because local authorities told him his housing application would be rejected if he couldn't produce a stamped voter's card.
Reconstruction
"We're all still living at my mother's," said the 58-year-old father of three.
The president's programme hinges on continuity.
"It is indispensable for me to pursue and consolidate the reconstruction work of the past 10 years," Bouteflika told a crowd Monday at his closing campaign rally, which his campaign chief, Abdelmalek Sellal, described as "a rock-star-like show" aimed at "looking like what happens in the biggest democracies".
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika gestures during his last campaign rally in Algiers on Monday. The 72-year-old president Bouteflika is running against five other candidates, all low-profile figures. In power since 1999, he was able to seek a third mandate after the constitution was changed last year. The elections are set for today. - AP