Algerians vote in hopes of fair presidential elections

ALGIERS, Algeria -- Rivals of Algeria's president said they feared fraud in Thursday's election, seen as a pivotal test for democracy in this North African nation emerging from more than a decade of Islamic-inspired bloodshed.\nDozens of soldiers in riot gear lined a highway between the capital and the restive Berber region of Kabylie, east of Algiers, Algeria, in a sign the army was bracing for potential unrest after the vote.\nThe elections went smoothly, though minor skirmishes broke out between rock-throwing youths and riot police near a polling station in a village in Kabylie, Algeria.\nPresident Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, faced five opponents, including his one-time protégé, former Prime Minister Ali Benflis, and Islamic leader Abdallah Djeballah.\nOfficial results were not expected until Friday, and if no candidate wins a majority, there will be a runoff later this month.\nFour hours before the polls closed, the Interior Ministry said the turnout was 46 percent of Algeria's 18 million eligible voters.\nCritics claimed cronies of the 67-year-old president were planning to hijack the election by tampering with votes. About 120 election observers, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, were on hand.\n"He can't win in the first round without using fraud," said Mohammed Khendek, a spokesman for Said Sadi, a candidate from Kabylie.\nIn the 1999 election, six candidates charging fraud pulled out on the eve of the balloting, and Bouteflika won a five-year term.\nThursday, police guarded polling stations as streams of women in headscarves lined up to vote.\nA smiling Bouteflika cast his ballot at a high school near the presidential palace.\nBut in the Kabylie town of Freha, just east of Tizi Ouzou, 60 miles from Algiers, protesters barricaded a street and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas.\n"Because our demands haven't been answered, we're not going to let anybody vote," said a part-time construction worker who identified himself only as Abrahim.\nBerbers have long demanded greater regional autonomy and recognition of their language, Tamazight.\n"This is going to continue. When the riot police leave, we're going to burn the ballot boxes," said Abrahim, holding a rock.\nRebellions against Algerian authorities erupt frequently in mountainous Kabylie, and the region has boycotted previous elections.\nThe election came as Algeria, a country rich in oil and gas, lurches toward democracy.\nIts nearly 33 million people have lived in the shadow of the powerful military since it gained independence from France in 1962 and suffered through a 12-year Islamic insurgency that erupted after the army canceled legislative elections a Muslim fundamentalist party was poised to win. An estimated 120,000 people have been killed.\nBut apathy is high among voters facing chronic housing shortages and more than 20 percent unemployment.\nAlgeria's Islamic extremist movement has also increasingly become a source of terrorist activities in Europe and North America, feeding international groups that helped al Qaeda.\nIn a joint statement, Benflis and two other candidates said Bouteflika intends "to announce victory in the first round with a percentage of 53-55 percent"