Algeria has been voting in a parliamentary election that’s expected to give the ruling FLN and its allies another five-year mandate.
Algeria has been voting in a parliamentary election that’s expected to give the ruling FLN and its allies another five-year mandate.
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Eighteen years after he first took office, the 80-year-old President Bouteflika cast his ballot in Algiers with the help of his nephew, in a rare public appearance.
The veteran leader has been widely praised for bringing the country out of a decade-long war with Islamist militants in the 1990s that killed 200,000 people.
Many Algerians are still wary of instability. The FLN won a large majority of seats five years ago after highlighting security in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts in several countries including neighbouring Tunisia.
Turnout is traditionally low in parliamentary elections
which many Algerians see as offering little change.
The FLN has dominated the political system since the country gained independence from France in 1962.
Apathy is strong in particular among younger voters who make up the majority of the population.