ALGIERS: Algerians vote Thursday in a presidential election, with incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika widely expected to win despite his chronic health problems, warnings of fraud and opposition calls for a boycott.
More than 260,000 police have been deployed to protect the 50,000 polling booths set up across Africa's largest country, where 23 million Algerians are eligible to vote in a contest between six candidates after the polls open at 0700 GMT.
The 77-year-old president, who rose to power in 1999 and is seeking a fourth term, is the firm favourite.
But he faces the damaging possibility of a low turnout, with youth activists and opposition parties loudly calling on Algerians to snub the poll, and many questioning whether Bouteflika is fit to rule.
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.
His intention to seek re-election was announced in February, prompting derision from his critics.
Unable to take to the campaign trail himself, Bouteflika delegated that task to a team of loyalists, who announced on Wednesday that he would vote in person -- as the constitution requires -- at an Algiers polling station, after some local media doubted his ability to do so.
There has been 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.
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