Algeria votes with Tebboune eyeing easy re-election

Algerians began voting on Saturday in a presidential election widely expected to bring a second term for the incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune who is hoping for a high turnout.

Tebboune, 78, is heavily favoured to see off moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) and are set to close at 7:00 pm.

Preliminary results could come as early as Saturday night, with the electoral authority, ANIE, bound to announce 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 incumbent's main challenge is to boost the 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 president is keen to have a significant turnout," Hasni Abidi, an analyst at the Geneva-based CERMAM Study Center. "It's his main issue."

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.

Campaign rallies have struggled to generate enthusiasm in the nation of 45 million, partly due to the summer heat.

More than 850,000 Algerians living abroad have been able to vote since Monday.

With young people making up more than half the population, all candidates are targeting 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 the country, Africa's largest exporter of natural gas.

His challengers have vowed to grant Algerians 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".