Algerians vote amid anger over economy

Algerians voted on Thursday for a new parliament amid soaring unemployment and a deep financial crisis caused by a collapse in oil revenues.

But despite urgent challenges facing the country, candidates have struggled to inspire voters disillusioned by what many see as broken government promises and a tainted political system.

"Corruption has plagued politics. How can you vote for a candidate who has paid to be selected by a party?" asked Ali, a merchant in the town of Blida, 45 kilometres southwest of Algiers.

He was referring to a scandal which has filled Algerian newspapers of candidates having paid for their names to be added to party lists. The North African country weathered the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with massive spending on wages and subsidies that depleted government coffers.

But a 2014 collapse in crude oil prices forced the government to raise taxes and mothball many public projects. Today, in a country of 40 million where half the population is under 30, one young person in three is unemployed.

Some 45,000 police officers were deployed on Thursday to guard the more than 53,000 polling stations across the country.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has rarely been seen in public since a 2013 stroke, voted from a wheelchair at a polling booth in Algiers. It was the ailing 80-year-old leader's first appearance before the international media since he was sworn in for a fourth term in April 2014. Wearing a suit and tie, he went behind a curtain to mark his ballot, which one of his nephews slipped into the box, and posed for photographers without making any comment.

The first results are expected late on Friday morning. Voters have shown little enthusiasm for the election. Streets in Algiers were nearly deserted in the morning.

Blida's cafes filled with men who sat discussing the election, but not all planned to vote.

"This facade of a parliament should be abolished. The government passes all its laws, even the most controversial ones," said Hocine, 35. Mohamed, 65, said he was voting "to elect deputies who will relay the demands and the struggles of the society. This is the only issue in this election".

Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal called for a "massive vote", urging women to wake their husbands early, refuse them coffee and "drag" them to the polling stations. "If they resist, hit them with a stick," he told an all-female audience in the eastern city of Setif.

Bouteflika has said a strong turnout was essential for the country's stability. The authorities have also used mosques to spread the message, with imams urging Algerians to go to the polls.

Bouteflika's National Liberation Front (FLN) and its coalition ally, the Rally for National Democracy (RND), have enjoyed a comfortable majority since a 2012 poll, which they are expected to retain.

But Nourredine Bekis, professor of sociology at the University of Algiers, said parliamentarians had little real influence