Tension as Algeria counts votes

By Paul de Bendern

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria has re-elected President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, his campaign office says based on early poll results, but
opposition candidates have accused the authorities of fraud.

Thursday's presidential election is seen as pivotal for the future of democracy in the North African country, which has been scarred by a
brutal Islamic holy war and military intervention.

"The election was fair. The information we have so far shows our candidate is way ahead of others. It's clear there will be no second
round. But like football you don't know the result until the final whistle," Toufik Khelladi, a top official at Bouteflika's campaign office, told
Reuters on Friday.

But opposition candidates cried foul.

The office of leading challenger and former Prime Minister Ali Benflis said he would launch legal appeals. The opposition offered no
evidence to back its allegations of widespread fraud.

If the result is confirmed it will be the first time a president has been re-elected since the end of the one-party state in 1989.

Celebrations broke out across the capital Algiers with supporters dancing in the streets and waving national flags from cars, balconies
and rooftops. Car horns could still be heard late into the night.

In the centre of the city, riot police used tear gas to break up a small protest by Beflis supporters and beat up several local and foreign
journalists, witnesses said. Demonstrations are banned in Algeria.

Official results were expected at midday on Friday. More than 40 percent of votes had been counted by 2200. The winner needs more
than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off on April 22.

The election was being watched in the West and the United States, which sees Algeria, because of its recent past and geopolitical
situation, as crucial in its global war on terror.

Past elections in Algeria have been marred by allegations of fraud with the powerful military acting as kingmaker. This time they
pledged to stay out.

The Interior Ministry said 58 percent voted on Thursday compared with 47 percent in legislative elections in 2002. Analysts said many
voters saw the poll as the freest yet.

Benflis, head of the National Liberation Front, was one of five candidates standing against Bouteflika. The others were a moderate
Islamist, a human rights activist, a liberal and a leftwinger who was also the first woman to run for president.

BACK ON THE WORLD MAP

Western diplomats expected the poll in the vast, energy-rich country of 32 million to underline its return to the international fold under
Bouteflika.

Bouteflika, 67, has all but ended a bloody guerrilla war, much of it directed against civilians. It flared after the military prevented a
hardline Islamic party from gaining power at the ballot box 12 years ago.

Many Algerians give him credit for a gradual emergency from a decade of violence in which the government says at least 100,000
people were killed. Human rights groups put the toll at 150,000.

"I am very happy to see my voice has not been manipulated and I am also very happy to see the army did not vote on my behalf.
Bouteflika's victory is also my victory," said 45-year-old unemployed Ahmed Selman.

After years of military-backed or one-party rule, Bouteflika has given Algeria a civilian face abroad, been received at the White House
and restored a measure of confidence in the country, accompanied by a return, albeit slow, of foreign investment.

"You may not have voted for Bouteflika but this election puts democracy on its rails in Algeria," said Abdelmadjid Sidi Said, president
of the four million-strong trade union federation UGTA.

The head of the election monitoring body, Said Bouchair, said the vote proceeded normally apart from isolated incidents with ballot
boxes burnt in the restive Berber region.

But with more than two thirds of Algerians under 30 and almost half unemployed and disillusioned, many stayed away.