Algerians began voting on Saturday in a presidential election widely expected to bring a second term for the incumbent, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
Polling stations opened at 8.00 am local time and are set to close at 7.00 pm, with official results due by Sunday at the latest.
There is little suspense: Tebboune is widely predicted to see off his two challengers, moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche.
"Every Algerian knows the outcome of this election in advance," one voter, Karim, told RFI's correspondent in Algiers earlier this week.
The main question, according to observers, is whether Tebboune can secure higher turnout than in the election that brought him to power in 2019, when around 60 percent of voters stayed at home.
That poll followed the Hirak pro-democracy protests, which toppled former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika before they were quashed with tougher policing and the jailing of hundreds of people.
Five years later, rights group Amnesty International said this week that Algerian authorities were "committed to maintaining a zero-tolerance approach towards dissenting opinions".
Podcast: Algeria heads to polls, Tebboune favoured amid rights concerns
Voters disillusioned
While 26 candidates submitted preliminary paperwork to run in the election, only two were ultimately approved to challenge the incumbent.
Others boycotted the polls, calling them a rubber-stamp exercise aimed at entrenching the ruling powers and burnishing their claims to legitimacy.
Campaign rallies, held in the summer heat after Tebboune brought the polls forward by several months, have struggled to generate enthusiasm in the country of 45 million.
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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.
Algerians abroad vote early in presidential polls expected to change little
Tebboune has touted economic successes during his first term, including more jobs and higher wages in Algeria, Africa's largest exporter of natural gas.
His challengers have vowed to grant Algerians more freedoms.
Former journalist Aouchiche, running with the Socialist Forces Front, says he is committed "to release prisoners of conscience through an amnesty and to review unjust laws", including on media and terrorism.
Hassani, an engineer from the Islamist party Movement of Society for Peace, has advocated "freedoms that have been reduced to nothing in recent years".
(with newswires)
