Algerian Voters Mob Polls in France

Dozens of people fainted or suffered slight injuries when thousands of expatriate Algerians crowded around their country’s consulates in France on Saturday to vote in the Algerian presidential election, police said.

The gates of the consulate at Nice on the Riviera were torn down, and riot police had to be called out in Marseilles, where about 8,000 people pressed into the narrow street outside the consulate.

Similar scenes occurred in Lyon and Strasbourg as thousands of Algerians ignored Islamic fundamentalist calls for a boycott.

Long queues formed behind crash barriers in Paris, where police were on alert for possible fundamentalist attacks, barring all cars from parking anywhere near the voters.

Rescue services hurriedly set up emergency medical centers outside several consulates.

Most of the 600,000 Algerian voters in France are expected to vote amid stringent security, an opinion poll showed Friday.

The survey indicated that Algerian immigrants, who will vote at 22 consulates and other polling stations across France, preferred anti-Islamic hawk Said Saadi to President Liamine Zeroual, who is widely expected to win the Thursday election.

Voting in France will also be held today and Thursday amid tight security after a wave of bomb attacks, blamed on Algerian Muslim militants, that has killed seven people and wounded 170 others.

The last general election in Algeria was called off by the military-backed authorities in January, 1992, when it became clear that the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front would win.

An estimated 50,000 people are believed to have died since then in civil violence between the authorities and Islamic militants bent on toppling the government and establishing an Islamic republic.