Algeria: Bouteflika in presidential elections

Algerians are called to the polls on Thursday to elect the president in an election whose favorite is the current head of state Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 77 years old, weakened due to illness, will make its first public appearance in the last two years.

Over 260,000 policemen and gendarmes will be deployed on the ground to ensure the safety of about 23 million voters who will vote in 50,000 polling, in favor of one of the six candidates that are in the race, including former Prime Minister Ali Benflis and woman a Trotskyist deputy, Louisa Hanoun.

Bouteflika, who has yet sequelae suffered a stroke a year ago and has the ability of speech and mobility reduced after three months of hospitalization in Val-de-Grâce in Paris, ''will exercise the right to vote on Thursday, at Cheikh Bachir El- Ibrahimi school from El-Biar," according to a press release. This will be the first public appearance aof Bouteflika since May 8, 2012.

A coalition of five opposition parties called for a boycott of elections, arguing for a democratic transition, while Barakat movement, hostile to a fourth term for Bouteflika, estimates that elections today are ''a non-event''.