Algeria's parliamentary elections sparked little enthusiasm on Thursday, with media reporting only a trickle of voters at many polling stations, dpa reported.
The Interior Ministry reported a turnout of 35 per cent right before most voting stations were to close. First results were expected on Friday.
A low turnout among the 21.6 million eligible voters was expected to favour Islamist parties, which were hoping to continue their sweep of the region.
Observers from the European Union, who numbered about 120, did not report major irregularities. "Voters are casting their votes freely and peacefully," EU delegation chief Jose Ignacio Salafranca said.
Some media, however, reported violent incidents despite heightened security measures.
An explosion in Bouira, 120 kilometres east of Algiers, killed one person, while another blast injured three people in Ain Defla, west of the capital, the El Watan newspaper reported.
The online journal Tour sur l'Algerie said young people attacked two polling stations, setting ballot boxes on fire in the Saharidj area. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, who cast his ballot in the morning, described the elections as an important moment for Algeria's democracy.
Forty-four parties as well as 211 independent candidates were competing for 462 seats in the National People's Assembly, which only has limited powers in the oil-and-gas-rich desert state.
Polls indicated that Islamist parties would do well, buoyed by the successes of Islamists in recent elections in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
The Arab Spring is seen as having largely bypassed Algeria, where demonstrations ran quickly out of steam. Most Algerians recoiled at the idea of a full-scale uprising for fear of a repeat of the violence that convulsed the country in the 1990s.
Between 100,000 and 200,000 people were killed in a decade-long civil war between Islamist rebels and the government. The conflict erupted after the abrupt cancellation of an election in 1990, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win.
High youth unemployment and the rising cost of basic foodstuffs have deepened disillusionment with politics.
Hoping to profit from the disenchantment, the Islamist Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) quit an alliance with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's National Liberation Front (FLN) and the National Democratic Rally in January.
The MSP joined forces with two other Islamist parties, the National Reform Movement and Islamic Renaissance Movement (Ennahda), to form the Green Alliance.
Bouteflika licensed 23 new parties and accredited 500 international observers to the election in a bid to make the poll more credible. The observers included representatives of the EU, the African Union and the Arab League.
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