Q&A: Algeria's presidential polls

Supporters of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during his last election meeting of the campaign on April 6

Algeria is holding its presidential election on 9 April. Incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is widely expected to win a third term.

The main parties are boycotting the poll, saying that it will be rigged in favour of Mr Bouteflika.

As a result only five relatively minor candidates are standing against the president.

WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES?

• Abdelaziz Bouteflika is backed by the National Liberation Front (FLN), which has run Algeria since independence in 1962. He has already served two consecutive terms as president since 1999, and had parliament amend the constitution last year so that he could stand for a third term
• Louisa Hanoune of the Trotskyist Workers' Party
• Moussa Touati of the Algerian National Front
• Mohammed Said, a moderate Islamist
• Djahid Younsi, a member of the Islamist Movement for National Reform
• Ali Fawzi Rebaine of the Ahd 54 party.

WHO IS BOYCOTTING THE ELECTION?

The main secular and ethnic-Berber parties are refusing to stand, alleging a rigged poll and campaign funding irregularities.

Karim Tabou, leader of the Berber-dominated Socialist Forces Front, said the government had no public support even though Mr Bouteflika would win anyway. He described the boycott as a "revolutionary act".

Another mainly Berber party, the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), said the election was a "pathetic and dangerous circus", and organised a rare series of protests along with the Socialist Forces Front against the election on 2 and 3 April in Tizi Ouzou and Bedjaia provinces.

A former leader of the National Reform Movement, Abdallah Djaballah, has described the polls as a "non-event" even though party member Djahid Younsi is standing. "The Algerian people are already boycotting," said Djaballah, adding that the public "does not believe in change anymore".

WHAT ARE THE ARMED GROUPS DOING?

Algeria's armed Islamist groups are also calling for a boycott.

The leader of al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelmalek Droudkal, called on the public not to vote in a poll "whose results are already decided by the junta".

Ali Belhadj, leader of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), said the race had already been decided in favour of Mr Bouteflika.

The armed groups have not committed any attacks on candidates or their campaigns this time.

HOW HAVE THE AUTHORITIES RESPONDED?

President Bouteflika has called on Algerians to flock to the polls for the sake of future generations, and the state media have broadcast awareness messages.

Consular offices in Europe have tried to get expatriates to vote, and big television screens in Algiers have tried to pull in young voters with football news and interviews.

Minister of Religious Affairs Bouabdellah Ghlamallah said the boycott calls were "perversion", and ordered imams of mosques to urge Algerians to vote.

The other candidates have also called on voters to turn out.

WHAT IS THE EXPECTED TURNOUT?

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said he expected turnout to be between 50% and 60%, although voter participation has fallen steadily since the 1990s to a record low in the 2007 parliamentary elections of 35%.

Various Algerian commentators have predicted a low turnout. For example, Echourouk El Youmi newspaper said presidential hopefuls "fear that they will find themselves alone in the polling stations on 9 April", and analyst Abed Charef told Al-Jazeera satellite TV that turnout would be low because the "results have already been decided".

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