An Algerian boy carries a poster of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika

An Algerian boy carries a poster of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during an election campaign rally on March 25, 2009 in Bejaia, 250 km east of Algiers. The poster reads 'Bouteflika, the shared hope'. A winner of 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).