Africa

Home page

Africa

Algerian president calls for massive vote amid boycott

16 April 2014 02:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Tuesday urged voters to participate massively in the presidential election due on Thursday amid calls to boycott the polls, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"I call upon all the citizens, men and women, to participate in the presidential election and express the choice of consolidating their sovereignty regained after paying heavy toll," Bouteflika said.

"Voting is also a duty which engages one's conscience regarding the utmost interest and the future of the nation. It prevents rupture of the sense of belonging to the mother country," the incumbent president added.

But several opposition parties and personalities, either secular or Islamists, have been calling for boycotting the presidential election, saying the authority is determined to fraud the results to maintain incumbent president Bouteflika in power for the upcoming five years.

Abstention is still seen as a specter for the presidential polls due on Thursday, as low turnout marked the campaigns. Observers say the presidential election will also be hit by such a phenomenon.

Earlier last week Bouteflika, who rarely addresses the public because of his ailing health, decided to break his silence to criticize recent statements by his main presidential contender and opposition leader Ali Benflis. He said Benflis was "inciting strife" and calling for "foreign intervention."

Benflis, a former prime minister, has strongly criticized the Bouteflika campaign's warnings of conspiracy and foreign intervention, calling such claims an exaggeration in an effort to intimidate the voters before the elections.

Six candidates will be running for the president on Thursday. Observers believe that the race will be narrowly limited between Bouteflika and Benflis.