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Algerian authorities say they have heeded calls for change after last year's Arab uprisings in nearby countries and will ensure the May 10 parliamentary election is truly democratic
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Ahmed Ouyahia, prime minister of Algeria and leader of Rally for National Democracy (RND), addressed a parliamentary election campaign rally in Algiers, a few days earlier
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Politicians campaigning for election were met with widespread voter apathy, with the expected turnout at around 35 per cent
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The political alliance between three officially-sanctioned Islamist movements, going under the umbrella of the Green Alliance, is expected to score a strong showing, although critics point to the parties' history as allies of the ruling National Liberation Front
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Supporters of Front for Justice and Development made way for the arrival of their leader Sheikh Abdallah Djaballah before the party's final parliamentary election campaign rally in Algiers a few days earlier
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A month ago, policemen were called in to stand guard as graduates who work temporary jobs in the public sector protested against the government
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The graduates were among thousands who were placed by the state in low-paid temporary public sector jobs until they could be allocated long-term posts. They said they would boycott the parliamentary election unless they are moved to permanent roles
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A supporter of the Islamist party Front for Justice and Development shouts during the party's final parliamentary election campaign rally in Algiers
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Ali Laskri, Secretary General of the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) party, rallied in Tizi Ouzou, some 100km east of the capital Algiers in April
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Supporters of the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) party attend the rally in Tizi Ouzou. Algeria launched the campaign for a parliamentary election that the ruling elite, in power for 50 years, hoped would soak up the pressure for change that has been building since the "Arab Spring" revolts
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Leader Abdelaziz Belkhadem, pictured in the flyers held by supporters of his party, the National Liberation Front (FLN) party heads a 136 seats in the outgoing assembly
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Just days earlier, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (L) and Mohamed Cherif Abbas, Algeria's Minister of Moujahidine, also war veterans, prayed at the commemoration of the Algerian war of independence during May 1945, in Setif
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More than 48,000 polling stations opened on Thursday at 8am local time, many under tight police surveillance but the country's youth looked set to abstain en masse
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Many Algerians, including those living in shantytowns, don't see how the election will affect their day-to-day preoccupations around unemployment, periodic shortages of goods, poor housing and high prices