- Title: ALGERIA: Polls close in Algeria presidential election
- Date: 17th April 2014
- Summary: ALGIERS, ALGERIA (APRIL 17, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF INTERIORS OF POLLING STATION LAST VOTER TAKING SECRET BALLOTS, WALKING TO VOTING BOOTH AND COMING BACK WOMAN'S SON CASTING BALLOT VOTER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) INHABITANT OF BAB EL OUED DISTRICT MARWAN SAYING: "By voting you feel as an Algerian citizen, it's a duty, I have to do my duty, like all Algerians. And the best will win." VOTER LEAVING STATION OFFICIALS OPENING AND EMPTYING BALLOT BOXES VARIOUS OF OFFICALS COUNTING BALLOTS OFFICIALS COUNTING BALLOTS FOR EACH CANDIDATE VARIOUS OF SECRET BALLOTS VOTING ROOM WITH OFFICIALS COUNTING OFFICIALS COUNTING OBSERVER REPRESENTING A CANDIDATE CHECKING THE NUMBER OF BALLOTS PAPER WITH NAMES OF CANDIDATES AND BALLOTS OBTAINED BY EACH VOTING ROOM
- Embargoed: 2nd May 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Algeria
- Country: Algeria
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAEKULVEYVMORBEQQWGC6E5U1P5
- Story Text: Algerians voted on Thursday (April 17) in an election President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is expected to win after 15 years in power, despite speaking only rarely in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.
Officials announced at 17h local time that 37.04 percent of the electorate had voted in the whole country.
Last voters cast their ballots in Malek Ibnrabia primary school in Algiers' Bab El Oued district.
With the dominant National Liberation Front (FLN) party, allied movements and unions behind him, many Algerians believe Bouteflika, 77, is almost assured of victory and another five years governing the North African OPEC state.
Appearing in public for one of the few times since his illness, Bouteflika voted sitting in a wheelchair in Algiers' El Biar district.
Algeria under Bouteflika has been seen as a partner in Washington's campaign against Islamist militancy in the Maghreb and a stable supplier of around a fifth of Europe's gas imports.
But concerns about the leader's health and how Algeria manages any transition have raised questions about stability in a region where neighbouring Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are still in turmoil after the Arab Spring revolts of 2011.
""By voting you feel as an Algerian citizen, it's a duty, I have to do my duty, like all Algerians. And the best will win."," said Marwan, a young father who voted in Algiers' Bab El Oued district.
Polls were due to close at 19h local though was extended to 20h local (1900 GMT) across the whole country.
Counting started straight afterwards , scrutinised by observers representing each of six candidates.
Voting passed mostly peacefully.
But in two villages east of Algiers in a mostly ethnic Berber-speaking region that sees sporadic clashes with authorities, gendarmerie troops fired tear gas and clashed with youths who tried to disrupt voting.
Loyalists portray Bouteflika as the man who helped stabilise Algeria after a war with Islamist militants in the 1990s that killed around 200,000 people.
But several opposition parties have boycotted the vote -- including rivals the Islamist MSP and secular RCD, saying it is slanted in Bouteflika's favour and unlikely to bring reforms to a system little changed since independence from France in 1962.
Ali Benflis, a former FLN chief who is now the opposition frontrunner, has warned of possible fraud in the vote.
Bouteflika, a veteran of Algeria's war of independence, won the 2009 election with 90 percent of the vote. In 2004, Benflis lost to Bouteflika in a ballot he said was tainted by fraud on an "industrial" scale.
Results of the election will be announced on Friday morning by Interior Minister Taieb Belaizare. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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