Algerians vote amid anger over economy

Algerians are voting for a new parliament amid soaring unemployment and a deep financial crisis caused by a collapse in oil revenues.

The North African country weathered the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with massive spending on wages and subsidies that depleted government coffers. But a 2014 collapse in crude oil prices forced the government to raise taxes and mothball many public projects.

Today, in a country of 40 million where half the population is under 30, one young person in three is unemployed.

Some 45,000 police officers are being deployed to guard the more than 53,000 polling stations across the country.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has rarely been seen in public since a 2013 stroke, voted from a wheelchair at a polling booth in Algiers.

— AFP