Algeria's Islamists were reeling Saturday from a stinging setback in legislative polls which saw the ruling party come out on top, resisting the Arab Spring's tide of democratic change.

The regime argued that the results showed Algerians' desire for stability, at a time when regime change was bringing chaos to other countries, and outright rejection of Islamism, whose rise 20 years ago led to civil war.

Algeria's former single party tightened its grip on power in an election that bucked the regional trend, according to results Friday that drew accusations of fraud from the defeated Islamists.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's National Liberation Front (FLN) won 220 out of 462 seats up for grabs in Thursday's election, the first since the Arab Spring, improving on its share in the outgoing national assembly.

The Algerian regime hailed a "remarkable" turnout as polling officials tallied votes Friday for legislative elections expected to hand a bigger share of power to moderate Islamists.

Turnout had been expected to be very low after a campaign that produced no new faces and failed to draw crowds, but the interior minister announced a relatively high figure of 42.9 percent after polling closed Thursday.

Algeria Thursday held its first polls since the Arab Spring amid deep voter disaffection, with the ageing ruling party confident of victory and its Islamist allies hoping for a strong showing.

As it does for every election, state television -- the country's only channel -- showed live footage of voters pouring into a polling station as soon as the doors opened and jostling to be the first to cast their ballot.

Voting began across Algeria Thursday in the country's first polls since the Arab Spring swept the region, with the ruling party, its Islamist allies and a boycott movement all hoping for victory.

The first of the more than 48,000 polling stations in Africa's largest country opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT), many under tight police surveillance.

The European Union (EU) mission in Algeria to monitor Thursday's legislative polls will not be given access to the national voters registry, a government official said.

The national roll contains "personal and confidential information whose release is banned under Algerian law," a foreign affairs official told the El-Moudjahid newspaper on condition of anonymity.

Gunmen in Algeria's restive Kabylie region on Monday shot dead four policemen, less than two weeks ahead of legislative polls, a security official said.

The four were patrolling on the outskirts of Mekla town when another vehicle approached. The attackers "opened fire with Kalashnikov rifles and left them no chance to fire back. Two were killed and two were seriously wounded", the official said on condition of anonymity.

Algerian youths working on fixed-term contracts for the government took to the streets Sunday threatening to boycott the May 10 legislative polls if they were not awarded permanent jobs.

Some 200 protesters claiming to represent 600,000 youths on pre-employment civil service contracts nationwide staged a demonstration in Algiers waving banners and placards.

Algeria's Prime Minister, fearing a wide scattering of votes in the May 10 general elections in which 44 parties are running, Wednesday urged voters to support the main ruling coalition partners.

Ahmed Ouyahia, who heads the National Rally for Democracy (RND), belonging to a three party political alliance loyal to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, called for "useful" votes.

A 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck western Algeria's Chlef region on Wednesday, but did not cause any injuries or infrastructure damage, the Centre of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics Research said.

Tremors were felt up to 200 kilometers away in the capital Algiers, as well as in the neighboring region of Ain Defla.