Voting has closed in Algeria’s presidential election in a poll where the incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune is tipped to stay on for a second term.

Voting began at 8am (07:00 GMT) and was scheduled be closed at 7pm (18:00 GMT) before it was extended for an hour.

Tebboune, 78, is heavily favoured to see off moderate conservative Abdelaali Hassani Cherif and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche.

More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote in the elections.

“Today we start building our future by voting for our project and leaving boycott and despair behind us,” Aouchiche said on national television after casting his vote.

Hassani Cherif told journalists he hoped “the Algerian people will vote in force” because “a high turnout gives greater credibility to these elections”.

Algerians abroad have been able to vote since Monday, and the country’s election authority (ANIE) put that turnout at 14.5 percent. The move to extend voting on Saturday came shortly before ANIE announced a turnout of 26 percent nationwide as of 5pm (16:00 GMT).

Low summer campaign period

Preliminary results could come as early as Saturday night, with ANIE announcing the official results on Sunday at the latest.

Campaign rallies have struggled to generate enthusiasm in the nation of 45 million, partly because of the summer heat.

With young people more than half the population, all three candidates have courted their votes with promises to improve living standards and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons.

Tebboune has touted economic successes during his first term, including more jobs and higher wages in Africa’s largest exporter of natural gas.

His challengers have vowed to grant the people more freedoms.

Aouchiche says he is committed “to release prisoners of conscience through an amnesty and to review unjust laws”, including on media and “terrorism”.

Hassani Cherif has advocated “freedoms that have been reduced to nothing in recent years”.

Opposition in Algeria ‘non-existent’

Youcef Bouandel of Qatar University told Al Jazeera that the political opposition in Algeria is almost “non-existent”.

“Everybody would be surprised if Abdelmadjid Tebboune doesn’t win tonight – in the first round of the presidential election,” he said.

Boubaker Sellami, an economist, said that while “investors had no confidence to invest in Algeria previously, that’s beginning to change as our laws are amended and our image changes”.

“The rebound of our economy depends on severing the relationship between corruption, money and politics. And that’s what’s given us a launchpad towards a new economic outlook.”