Bouteflika is the likely frontrunner in the polls

Additional Reporting By Hameed Ghemrasa, IOL Correspondent 

ALGIERS, April 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Over 18 million Algerians are voting in the country’s presidential elections on Thursday, April 8, to choose from five candidates gripped by fears of fraud by the sixth candidate incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Casting ballots are made amid heavy security measures, including checking individuals and searching cars, in around 40,000 voting centers.

Security forces threw a cordon outside hotels of the capital, where regional and international observers monitoring the polls stay.

Bouteflika is considered the frontrunner while former Prime Minister Ali Benflis is seen as his main challenger.

Many Algerians say they will vote for Bouteflika, the BBC correspondent said.

They attribute the decline of political violence in recent years to the amnesty he offered to militants to lay down their arms, he added.

They also say he has restored Algeria 's international standing after years of isolation.

At least 100,000 Algerians have been killed since 1992 when an insurgency was sparked off by the army's cancellation of a parliamentary election. The government scrapped elections results after a sweeping victory of Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) candidates in the first round.

Counting is due to start at 2000 local time (1900 GMT), with early indications shortly afterwards.

Results are expected on Friday morning.

‘Plot’

Rivals of Bouteflika warned of fraud on the election day, with other groups rather deciding to boycott the vote to protest Bouteflika abusing his office to further his re-election chances.

They say he was planning to rig the election and have exploited his control of state television, the courts and the treasury to gain unfair advantages over them.

They cited his nightly appearances on television for months touring the country and distributing public funds.

The president’s three main rivals - Benflis, Islamic candidate Abdallah Djaballah and secularist Said Sadi - issued a communique on Tuesday, April 7, in which they complained a plot was being made by Bouteflika’s supporters to end him winning the poll.

The “plot” was being hatched in which Bouteflika's camp would claim victory with 53 to 55 percent of the vote before all the ballots were counted, according the communique.

The campaign team of Algeria 's first woman to run for president, far-left candidate Louisa Hanoune, put out a separate statement saying “it cannot be ruled out that fraud may tarnish the credibility of this election”.

And nationalist candidate Ali Fawzi Rebaine put his name to a statement by all five of Bouteflika's rivals alleging that “the first signs of plans for fraud” were already visible.

Rebaine said Bouteflika let the door wide open to his entourage taking up sensitive posts in the country.

The fraud charges revive memories of the atmosphere ahead of the 1999 election that brought Bouteflika to power. Then, all six of his rivals - who included Djaballah - pulled out the day before, claiming that vote-rigging was already in full swing.

Divided

The Islamic parties have joined these elections divided, if not brim with contradictions.

The Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) had said they would pour support into the Bouteflika re-election bid.

Bouteflika promised the group leaders further luring posts in the cabinet and diplomatic missions.

The Islamic candidate Jaballah accused the MSP of hypocrisy for “selling the Islamic cause off cheap on auction”.

Leader of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) Abassi Madani and his deputy Ali Belhadj rather prefer to wait and see the vote results.

Algerian authorities freed  in July 2003 Madani - who has been under house-arrest since 1997- and Belhadj - who has served 12 years in prison.

Boycotted

Other forces called for boycotting the elections, including the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party.

The poll is also being boycotted in the Berber-speaking region of Kabylie, where a general strike has been widely observed.

In the Kabylie capital Tizi-Ouzou, the protesters erected burning barricades in Les Jenets area, near the main hospital.

Clashes left one activist killed at the hands of the vote participation supporters, as two regional politicians are running for president.

In some areas, there are no polling stations. Berber activists want their Tamazight language to be given equal status to Arabic.

Run-off

Bouteflika's five challengers for the presidency, as well as the European Parliament's observer mission, all agree that a first-round victory by Bouteflika, given the apparent distribution of support among the six candidates, would raise suspicions.

“Everything depends on the conditions on the day of the vote," Ibrahimi said. "In my opinion, if there is no fraud, a second round is inevitable,” said Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, a respected former foreign minister who was one of the six candidates who withdrew in 1999.

“The fact that the candidates are still there means that in the minds of the candidates, the elections are still worth contesting," Pasqualina Neapoletano, head of the European Parliament observer team told reporters on Tuesday according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

She said that if one candidate wins in a landslide, or just over 50 percent, “that will mean that something's wrong. We're not stupid”.