Campaign kicks off in Algeria's contested presidential vote

People attend a gathering calling for boycott of Algeria's presidential election Campaigning for Algeria's April 17 presidential election begins Sunday as criticism mounts of a bid by incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika to clinch a fourth term despite concerns over his health. The president rejected such concerns in a message to the nation Saturday, insisting he was fit to govern and had decided to run in answer to persistent calls from Algerians.
"It is my duty to respond positively, because never in my life have I shied away from the call of duty," he said.
"The difficulties linked to my health do not appear to disqualify me in your eyes or plead in favour of me giving up the heavy responsibilities which have, in part, affected my health," APS news agency quoted him as saying.
He will square off against five other presidential hopefuls, including one woman, Louisa Hanoune, and key challenger Ali Benflis, and is widely expected to win.
Former prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal, who quit to become Bouteflika's campaign manager, said earlier this month that the president need not be on the road and would be represented by his aides.
Sellal was closely involved in the 2004 and 2009 campaigns that returned the president to power, and he himself has travelled across Algeria in past months to play up Bouteflika's track record.
That record has come under heavy criticism in Algeria, where politicians, the military and civil society groups have expressed opposition to Bouteflika's re-election.
The opposition says his rule has been dogged by corruption, while protests and calls for the fall of the government have multiplied.
Former president Liamine Zeroual has joined the chorus of dissent and slammed the 2008 amended constitution that allowed Bouteflika to win a third term.
In remarks published by the press, Zeroual said he had a "moral obligation" to speak out and demanded "a handover of power".
On Friday, thousands attended a meeting convened to urge a boycott of the vote, and dozens of people demonstrated the next day to call for the fall of the government.
- Vote rigging feared -
Anger has mounted since Bouteflika, frail looking and his voice barely audible, was seen on state television on March 3 formally announcing that he was seeking a fourth term.
It was the first time he had spoken in public in two years. Since returning home from hospital in Paris, the president has chaired just two cabinet meetings and only rarely appeared in public
His key challenger Benflis, 69, is a defender of human rights and former prime minister who was sidelined from politics after running against him in 2004.
Benflis has urged Algerians to vote in large number and make their voices heard to combat what many in the opposition believe are going to be rigged polls.
Like Benflis and Hanoune, candidates Moussa Touati and Ali Fawzi Rebaine ran in previous presidential races.
Hanoune, 60, heads the leftist Workers Party and was arrested twice in the 1980s when she worked for a clandestine workers' group.
Touati, 60, set up the Algerian National Front in 1999 and is a former soldier who was trained in Syria and in Libya.
An optician by trade, 59-year-old Rebaine was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of undermining state security and membership of an illegal association. He was freed under a presidential pardon two years later.
The election is a first for Abdelaziz Belaid, 50. The youngest of the six candidates, he has headed the opposition El-Moustakbel Front since 2012.
Six other hopefuls were rejected by the electoral commission while dozens of opposition figures dropped out of the race, expecting fraud.
Supporters of Bouteflika, who helped end Algeria's devastating civil war in the 1990s, say the president represents stability.
In his message Saturday Bouteflika said he decided to stand in the election in response to overwhelming calls from his supporters.
"It would grieve me to ignore your calls and that is why I decided, so as not to disappoint you, to stand in the presidential election and turn all my energy towards meeting your desires," he said
Campaigning ends on April 13.
Source: AFP