The run-up to Algeria's presidential poll has been dominated by a single question: Will the army allow an open election or have the results already been fixed in favour of Abdelaziz Bouteflika?

Despite having been absent from the political scene for almost 20 years, Mr Bouteflika very quickly emerged as the front runner having managed to secure the backing of an impressive array of parties and personalities which are part of or close to the military-backed ruling establishment.

He also has the open endorsement of influential military figures including retired general Khaled Nezzar.

Gen Nezzar was defence minister in 1992 when the army cancelled parliamentary elections after the first round of voting revealed that an Islamist party was heading for a massive win.

Algerians were left in no doubt that Mr Bouteflika was the preferred candidate of at least a section of the secretive clique of senior officers often referred to in the press as "les decideurs", the decision makers who control political life in the country.

However, many close to the political scene believed that despite the strength of Mr Bouteflika's position, the top brass were not united in supporting him, a situation which left a breach that could work to the advantage of the other candidates to the presidency.

The vehement insistence of the outgoing president, Liamine Zeroual, a retired military man himself, that he wanted to organise an honest poll lent some credibility to that view.

Decades of army dominance

The army has held real power in Algeria since its independence from France in 1962.

This dominance has its roots in an internal power struggle in the liberation movement before independence which ended with the military wing of the movement marginalising its political wing.

The army, however, has always preferred to wield power from behind the scenes, pulling the strings which move civilian politicians and organisations.

Its cancellation of the 1992 elections was presented as a response to the popular will after members of a range of civilian organisations and women's groups took to the streets to protest against the Islamists.

Zeroual: Army's choice

In 1994, the army chose then defence minister Liamine Zeroual to be head of state following a national conference in which he was presented as the choice of civil society.

The main political parties in the country boycotted that conference and, less than two years later, Mr Zeroual won in presidential elections where it was Algeria's worst-kept secret that he was the army's preferred candidate.

Mr Zeroual's surprise decision last year to end his term early and organise elections are believed to the outcome of a factional dispute within the army pitting him and his supporters against the powerful chief of staff.

Civilian frustration

Algerians often say with bitter irony that every state has an army - but in Algeria it is the army which has a state.

While the comment expresses frustration with the military's seemingly limitless political power and the corruption of some officers and their entourage, analysts say it points to a deeper truth.

Having won the liberation struggle against France, the army went on to shape the independent state with itself as the central and most powerful institution in it.

It mistrusts civilian politicians but up until now, and despite seven years of bloodshed in the conflict with the Islamists, its dominance does not appear to be under serious threat.