Algeria's three-week presidential elections campaign ended on Sunday with a war of words between incumbent president Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika and his main rival Ali Benflis. A mandatory period of silence has followed since then, but the echoes of the incumbent's controversial re-election bid despite his poor health still permeate Algeria's political scene. Few have doubts about Bouteflika's eventual victory, but it remains to be seen what the final results will be and if they will be challenged by his rival, Benflis, who has devoted most of his campaigning to issuing warnings about possible fraud. Benflis, a former prime minister and ex-leader of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), ran in the 2004 presidential elections when he came second with only 6.4 per cent of the vote. Humiliated by the defeat, he withdrew from the political stage until the present elections. It is thought that Benflis poses no threat to Bouteflika, who is backed by the Algerian military, the FLN, the mainstream media and influential business tycoons, but he has vowed to cry foul should he detect vote-rigging. His threats have been so persistent in an already tense political climate marked by a series of protests against Bouteflika's re-election bid that the incumbent felt compelled to respond by indirectly accusing Benflis of fuelling chaos and unrest in the country. There are 21 million registered voters in Algeria. Observers expect a low turnout given the general state of apathy in the country and, despite the noise provoked by the elections, the stagnation that has characterised Algerian politics since Bouteflika assumed power with the military's backing in 1999. Voter turnout in the previous presidential elections was approximately 74 per cent, according to official figures, which were disputed by the opposition which estimated only 24 per cent. The preliminary results of today's elections are expected by tomorrow (Friday), while official figures could take up to ten days to be announced by the authorities. It will be telling if Bouteflika wins by the landslide 90 per cent he won in the 2009 elections. During this year's campaign, he has been the “absent-present” candidate, as the Arabic saying goes. Since suffering a stroke last year, the 77-year-old war of independence veteran has rarely appeared in public. When he did so recently in order to challenge criticisms about his health, he spoke in faint whispers and barely managed to stand. Algerian Prime Minister Abdel-Malek Sellal has stepped down in order to lobby on his behalf, setting a precedent for proxy campaigning. As a result of what seems to be his desperate attachment to power, knowing, as does the country's elite, that his chances of surviving another five-year term are slim, Bouteflika has become a metaphor of the Algerian regime 52 years after independence. Few can have insight into what the future will bring, since there are few signs of change in the status quo. While Algeria escaped the winds of the 2011 Arab Spring because of its painful decade-long experience of civil strife in the 1990s between the Islamists and the military, the regime has been doing little to prevent a possible implosion. Through Sellal, Bouteflika has made vague promises of constitutional amendments to introduce democratic reforms should he be re-elected. There has also been talk of introducing an appointed vice-president who would serve as part of democratisation efforts to break the image of one-man rule and also survive Bouteflika in the case of his death and continue the president's five-year term without new elections. Even the fragmented and ineffective Algerian opposition is united in little else besides opposing a fourth term. Some have called for boycotting the “masquerade” elections, while others talk about starting a “transitional” period. In the meantime, all are waiting to see what will happen on 18 April, a day which has come to symbolise the uncertainty hanging over Algeria's future.
