ALGIERS: Algerians headed to the polls on Saturday in a presidential election widely expected to bring a second term for incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune whose main hope is for a high turnout.

Tebboune, 78, is heavily favored to see off moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche. In the capital Algiers on Saturday morning, the streets were generally quiet, with most voters expected to head to the polling stations after mid-day.

“I came early to exercise my duty and choose the president of my country in a democratic manner,” Sidali Mahmoudi, a 65-year-old early voter, told AFP. Seghir Derouiche, 72, told AFP that not voting was “ignoring one’s right”. Voting began at 8 am (0700 GMT) and closed at 7 pm.

At 10 am ANIE, the electoral authority, said turnout was 4.5 percent nationwide. More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote, and both of Tebboune’s challengers have urged a large turnout. “Today we start building our future by voting for our project and leaving boycott and despair behind us,” Aouchiche said on national television after voting.

Hassani told journalists he hoped “the Algerian people will vote in force” because “a high turnout gives greater credibility to these elections”. Algerians abroad have been able to vote since Monday, and ANIE on Saturday put that turnout at 14.5 percent.

After voting in Algiers, Tebboune did not mention voter numbers, saying only that he hoped “Algeria will win in any case”. He said that whoever wins “will continue the project” of what he often calls the New Algeria—the country that emerged following mass pro-democracy protests. The incumbent’s main challenge is to boost voter turnout in the North African country, after he won in 2019 with 58 percent of the vote—but amid a record abstention rate of more than 60 percent.

The low turnout in 2019 followed the Hirak pro-democracy protests, which toppled former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika before they were quashed with ramped-up policing and the jailing of hundreds of people. Preliminary results could come as early as Saturday night, with ANIE announcing the official results on Sunday at the latest.

“The winner is known in advance,” political commentator Mohamed Hennad posted on Facebook before voting began, referring to Tebboune. Tebboune’s opponents stood little chance because of low support and the “conditions in which the electoral campaign took place, which is nothing more than a farce”, Hennad wrote. “The president is keen to have a significant turnout,” Hasni Abidi, an analyst at the Geneva-based CERMAM Study Center. “It’s his main issue.”

Campaign rallies have struggled to generate enthusiasm in the nation of 45 million, partly because of the summer heat. With young people more than half the population, all three candidates have courted their votes with promises to improve living standards and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons.

Tebboune has touted economic successes during his first term, including more jobs and higher wages in Africa’s largest exporter of natural gas. His challengers have vowed to grant the people more freedoms. Aouchiche says he is committed “to release prisoners of conscience through an amnesty and to review unjust laws”, including on media and terrorism.

Hassani has advocated “freedoms that have been reduced to nothing in recent years”. Political analyst Abidi said Tebboune should address the major deficit in political and media freedoms as politics is “absent from the scene”, with Algerians having “divorced from current politics” after the Hirak protests ended. Five years later, rights group Amnesty International said Algerian authorities were “committed to maintaining a zero-tolerance approach towards dissenting opinions”. – AFP