Algerians voted on Thursday in an election in which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is hoping for a big turnout and a crushing victory over his five rivals.
”Vote, even vote against me, but vote,” the 72-year-old head of state urged the 20,6-million electors as he criss-crossed the North African nation in search of a third five-year term.
Bouteflika’s re-election appears to be a foregone conclusion, not least because the polls — which close at 8 pm are being boycotted by the traditional opposition.
He hopes that a score better than the 84,99% he achieved in 2004 will give him an enhanced authority.
”A president who is not elected with a crushing majority is not a president,” he said when launching his candidature, the Constitution having been changed to allow him to stand for a third term.
In 2004 turnout was a little less than 60% of those eligible to vote.
Bouteflika’s five mostly little-known and cash-strapped rivals are also appealing for a high turnout, calling on Algerians to vote against corruption, cronyism, social injustice and unfair division of wealth.
”No winner can collect 50% of the vote [enough for an outright win] in the first round because I have seen how angry” people are, Djahid Younsi (El Islah, moderate Islamist) said.
Louisa Hanoune, the only woman candidate and leader of the Trotskyist Workers’ Party (PT), is the only opposition competitor to have a political base and a programme she has put forward for years. But she collected only one percent of the vote in 2004.
Moussa Touati, president of the nationalist Algerian National Front (FNA), Mohamed Said of the moderate Islamist Justice and Liberty Party (PJL) running as an independent and Ali Fawzi Rebaine of the AHD-54 nationalist party, who won 0,63% of the vote in 2004, have all criticised the resources made available to ”just one candidate”.
Bouteflika has been playing up his 10 years in office, promising ”stability and continuity” with a five-year $150-billion development plan to create three million jobs and build a million homes.
To head off charges of electoral fraud, Interior Minister Nouredine Yazi Zerhouni has insisted that ”the electoral system guaranteeing transparency and respect for the results of the vote is assured”.
He said that African Union, Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Arab League observers would be present. The United Nations has sent a review mission that will report back to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Zerhouni said security measures to protect voters would be in place, in the face of potential threats from armed Islamists of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, active in some regions.
The head of al-Qaeda’s branch in North Africa called on Algerians to boycott this week’s presidential election in an audio message posted on an Islamist website on Monday.
”The least way to reject this evil is to boycott these presidential elections and to reject them completely,” said his message, the authenticity of which could not be verified.
During the campaign Bouteflika had raised the possibility of a referendum on a general amnesty for Islamists who ”surrendered definitively” to strengthen his policy of national reconciliation which has led several thousand Islamists to lay down their arms. — Sapa-AFP