Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (C) is surrounded by his bodyguards

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (C) is surrounded by his bodyguards as he greets his supporters during an election campaign rally on March 26, 2009 in Oran, 450 km west of Algiers. A winner of the 1999 elections with no opponents, then re-elected in 2004 with 85 percent of the votes, Bouteflika, 72, is campaigning to win the April 9 vote on the platform of "a strong and serene Algeria." The four other contenders, none of them truly national figures, are Moussa Touati (Algerian National Front), Djaid Younsi (El-Islah, an Islamist party), Ali Fawzi Rebaine (a nationalist), and Mohamed Said Belaid (the Liberty and Justice Party).