The period specified for the election campaigns ended in Algeria on Sunday, after it lasted for three weeks. It was characterized by the emergence of a broad popular refusal to participate in the scheduled voting on Thursday.

The five candidates faced great difficulties in passing their messages to the voters, in light of the protest movement that has continued since February 22 to vote, which made the task of identifying the candidate with the highest chances difficult.

Huge crowds demonstrated on Friday in Algiers and in the rest of the country against the existing authority, rejecting the presidential elections.

The protest movement demands the departure of all the existing system since independence in 1962, after he managed to push Bouteflika to resign after spending about twenty years at the head of power, and the protesters consider that the goal of the presidential elections is to revive the system.

On Sunday, Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ahmed Qaid Saleh - who has been considered the strongman of the regime since Bouteflika's departure - expressed his conviction that "the Algerian people will run this crucial national entitlement through strong and intense participation in the upcoming presidential elections, with full freedom and transparency."

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The law imposes an election silence for three days before the ballot, whereby any publicity by or on behalf of the candidates is prohibited.

Five candidates are competing in these elections: Izz al-Din Mihoubi, Abd al-Qadir bin Qurainah, Abd al-Majid Tabun, Ali bin Falis and Abd al-Aziz Belaid.

All the candidates were involved in supporting President Bouteflika or assuming official duties during his four terms.

The presidential elections will be held in Algeria next Thursday, December 12, while polling abroad began on Saturday, and voting operations will take place at the headquarters of the Algerian diplomatic missions.

Originally, the presidential elections were supposed to take place on April 18, but it was postponed the first time to the fourth of July, and then postponed again to December 12 because the lack of candidates.

The contestants seized the last day of the election campaign, participated in rallies in the capital and other states, or held press conferences.

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Electoral posters of the candidates were torn or written against them.

On Friday, an unprecedented debate was held in the history of Algeria between the two candidates, during which they sought to present their programs, but they did not deviate from the framework of public statements, and they seemed unable to persuade.

In recent hours, social media featured a call to general strike from Sunday to Thursday.

The head of the Independent National Electoral Authority, Mohamed Sharafi, announced that the total number of potential voters exceeds 24 million and 474 thousand voters, among whom about 914 thousand voters vote abroad.

The poll is supervised by the Independent National Elections Authority, which was established in mid-September, and is headed by former Minister of Justice Muhammad Sharafi. The elections were previously supervised by the Ministry of Interior.

The elections coincide with the trial of the symbols of the Bouteflika regime, led by his brother Said Bouteflika, who Algerian media said did not respond to the judge’s questions at a trial session on Saturday, and then the judge ordered his return to Blida prison.