Polls in the North African country are set to open on 17 April with a diverse mix of candidates to choose from, ranging from a Trotskyist to a human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
-based party leader, and other newcomers.
Yet these candidates have little chance of winning the national vote. Not even the current president's former prime minister between 2000 and 2003, Ali Benflis, who is considered his greatest challenger in the presidential race.
Dissenting voices deem this election one of the most contentious in the country's history.
Bouteflika... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term, who will probably die in office of old age...
's bid to stand for a fourth term comes despite promises to step down.
In May 2012, Bouteflika announced: "My generation has reached its end. We did things for the country. Henceforward, the country is in your hands, you the young. Take care of it."
His words were interpreted as a de facto handover of power from the generation that was born after Algeria's independence from La Belle France in 1962 and has ruled it ever since.
"This theme has been a recurring issue in the discourse of numerous political, media and civil society personalities," Imad Mesdoua, a political analyst with the Mintz Group investigative services firm, told Ahram Online.