Algerians cast votes to elect president

Polling booths opened here Thursday for 23 million citizens to cast votes in the presidential elections to decide who will lead Algeria for the next five years. National Liberation Front's ailing incumbent 77-year-old Abdelaziz Bouteflika is widely considered to win a fourth term in office and extend his 15-year rule. Five other candidates in the fifth plural presidential election in country's history are former prime minister Ali Benflis, Secretary-General of Workers Party Louisa Hanoune, the only woman candidate, Abdelaziz Belaid, Moussa Touati, and Ali Fewzi Rebaine. In order to enable the 22,880,678 voters on the electoral rolls in Algeria and abroad to vote, authorities mobilised 11,756 polling centres and 49,971 polling stations, including 167 mobile stations, in addition to some 460,000 civil servants for the April 17 election, according to the official figures. Algerians living abroad cast votes their ballots April 13 ahead of the actual polling day. A total of 1,009,285 voters abroad are eligible to vote and polling for them runs from April 12 to 17, at 398 polling stations, including 52 in France. Voting began on Monday for the nomads in the remotest areas in some provinces of the country, at 167 mobile polling stations mobilized towards that end. Some 59,000 voters among the nomadic population are involved in these operations, which will continue until today. The Election Commission will announce results Friday. It will hold a second round for two candidates with highest number of votes in the first round, if no candidate gets majority.