Bouteflika Camp Scraps Election Rally after Violence

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's camp said it called off an election rally in the Kabylie region of eastern Algeria on Saturday after a television crew and journalists were assaulted.

Anis Rahmani, head of private pro-Bouteflika channel En-Nahar, told Agence France Presse that a five-man crew from the station was attacked and four of its journalists were injured, one seriously.

Campaigning for Algeria's April 17 presidential election was launched on March 23, with incumbent Bouteflika, 77, aiming to clinch a fourth term but without taking to the road, amid concerns over his health.

He will square off against five other presidential hopefuls and is widely expected to win.

"I called off the meeting for the sake of security, nothing more, nothing less," former premier Abdelmalek Sellal, who quit to become Bouteflika's campaign manager, said on En-Nahar.

"You can see for yourselves what concept some people have of democracy. We are against violence and extremism," added Sellah, who has said the president would be represented by aides on the campaign trail.

Rahmani blamed supporters of the main challenger Ali Benflis for the violence.

"It's a dangerous escalation coming from a specific candidate. We ask him to renounce violence and terror as the path to El-Mouradia," he said of the Algiers district housing the presidential palace.

Around 250 people chanting slogans opposed to another Bouteflika term had gathered outside a venue in the Kabylie town of Bejaia where Sellal was to lead a rally, witnesses said.

Some people forced their way into the meeting and attacked the En-Nahar crew who were covering the event with other journalists, they said.

National news agency APS said riot police dispersed the protesters and escorted news crews to the airport.