CAIRO: Incumbent Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 72, won the presidential race for the third time, as official results indicated on Friday. Bouteflika, who had the constitution changed last year to allow him to run, won his third five-year term as president of Algeria amid much violence. Six terrorist attacks aimed at disturbing the election process, claiming the life of one policeman. Opposition currents, including Islamists groups, had also called on Algerian citizens to boycott the election. Political analyst and columnist Ambassador Mahmoud Shoukry, told Daily News Egypt that the results were "expected. "There was no real rival candidate on the scene to compete with Bouteflika, Shoukry said. "Even opposition forces, who are not that powerful in Algeria, withdrew from elections. According to Shoukry, Algerian presidential elections are typical of all presidential elections in Arab countries, where no strong candidates compete with current presidents who have been in office for decades. Another main reason that led to Bouteflika's victory, according to Shoukry, is "the public fear from the rule of political religious forces. Bouteflika won 90.24 percent of the votes, with more than 74 percent of Algerians casting ballots, according to Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni. There are around 20 million Algerians registered to vote. During his campaign Bouteflika promised to continue his policy of national reconciliation and reconstruction and to open new investment opportunities that will create three million jobs. He also repeatedly implied that he would offer a general amnesty to militants if they fully renounce violence, as he had in the past with groups left over from an insurgency that had left up to 200,000 people dead since 1992, according to the Associated Press. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was the first to congratulate Bouteflika on his victory.
