ALGIERS: Abdelaziz Bouteflika, seeking a fourth presidential term, cast his ballot from a wheelchair on Thursday as Algerians voted in an election he is widely expected to win despite chronic health problems.

In his first public appearance in two years, a smiling Bouteflika arrived at a polling station in El Biar district of Algiers and waved but made no comment to reporters covering an election tainted by fraud warnings and boycott calls.

More than 260,000 police were deployed to protect the 50,000 polling booths across Africa’s largest country, with 23 million Algerians eligible to vote in a contest between six candidates.

The 77-year-old president, who rose to power in 1999, is the firm favourite. But all eyes will be on turnout and any signs of vote rigging, before polling stations close at 7pm after 11 hours of voting.

Sporadic violence has marred the election process, especially in the restive Kabylie region.

Clashes at three places in Bouira province, between police and youths seeking to disrupt the vote, wounded around 40 people, local sources said, and five protesters shouting anti-regime slogans were arrested in the capital.

For Algeria’s independent newspapers, the election outcome is a foregone conclusion.

“It’s just a matter of the curtain coming down this evening on a bad taste political drama,” commented El Watan, saying the election lacked credibility.

Mounting frustration: Bouteflika faces the damaging prospect of a low turnout, with youth activists and opposition parties loudly calling on Algerians to snub the election and many questioning whether he is fit to rule.

He has been seen only rarely on television in recent months, looking frail and barely audible, after suffering a mini-stroke last year which confined him to hospital for three months.

When he last appeared in public, in the run-up to a May 2012 parliamentary election, Bouteflika addressed Algeria’s youth to declare: “My generation has served its time.

“His intention to seek re-election, announced in February, sparked derision and at times scathing criticism in the independent media.

However, Bouteflika remains popular with many Algerians, especially for helping to end the devastating civil war of the 1990s.—AFP