Protests mar Algeria's election

Algiers - Unrest also erupted in the northern mountain region of Kabylie, home to much of the country's Berber minority.

Algeria held a tense presidential election on Thursday meant to bring stability after a year of turmoil, but voting was marred as protesters stormed polling stations and thousands rallied in the capital.
The unpopular vote comes almost 10 months after a people power movement ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 82, after two decades in office, and as demonstrators keep pushing for an end to the military-backed political system.
Tens of thousands rallied in Algiers, defying a heavy police presence backed by water cannon and helicopters, and despite the arrests of at least 10 activists meant to prevent a repeat of the previous day's anti-election rallies.
"The people want independence," they chanted after breaking through a police cordon and filling the streets outside the Central Post Office, their symbolic meeting place in more than 40 weeks of rallies. A group stormed a polling station in the capital, suspending voting there for about half an hour, before police pushed them out again.
Unrest also erupted in the northern mountain region of Kabylie, home to much of the country's Berber minority, where groups "ransacked the ballot boxes and destroyed part of the electoral lists" in Bejaia, a resident said.
Video footage shared on social media, purportedly from a polling station there, showed dozens of people tossing ballot papers into the air and stamping on them, while clips from other cities showed large demonstrations. Crowds also surrounded a government building in Tizi Ouzou, where security forces fired teargas to repel them.
The ballot features five candidates, all of them widely rejected as "children of the regime" by the protesters.
Among them are two of the ousted leader's former prime ministers - Abdelmajid Tebboune, 74, and Ali Benflis, 75 - and a former minister, Azzedine Mihoubi.
While only a trickle of voters cast their ballots in some districts, national television showed longer queues elsewhere, leading some online commentators to wonder "how much they have been paid".
Voter turnout stood at just over 20 per cent at 1400GMT, seven hours after polls opened, said electoral committee chief Mohamed Charfi.
That was below the 23 per cent recorded at the same time of day in elections five years ago, when total participation reached 50.7 per cent.
But some said they were determined to cast their ballots.
"I am voting because I am afraid that the country will get mired in the crisis," said Karim, a 28-year-old civil servant.
Mahdid Saadi, a 76-year-old retiree, showed his voter card with many stamps and said:
"I have always voted and I still vote today, it is a duty."
Polls were scheduled to close at 1800 GMT but the result may not be announced for another day or later, as was the case after previous elections already marked by high abstention rates.

• MENA