Residents, some holding portraits of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, wait

Residents, some holding portraits of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, wait for the arrival of Bouteflika, who campaigns for the upcoming presidential elections in El Oued, some 600 kilometers (373 miles) southeast of Algiers, Tuesday March 24, 2009. Campaigning for Algeria's April 9 presidential election officially began Thursday March 19 with incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, running for a third five-year term, widely considered a shoo-in. Other candidates are nationalists Moussa Touati of the Algerian National Front and Fawzi Rebaine, from a movement known as AHD54.