Algerian young girls stand in front of a placard with

Algerian young girls stand in front of a placard with the portrait of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika 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).