Algerians were expected to approve a partial amnesty for hundreds of Islamic militants in a referendum on Thursday intended to bring an end to a decade of brutal violence that cost at least 150,000 lives.
The long conflict, one of the world's cruellest, isolated Algeria from the rest of the world amid atrocities by rebels and allegations of crimes by security forces.
Many are ready to forgive, although not all. "We are fed up with the tears. It's time to forget the past and build a future," said an Algiers voter, a 37-year-old teacher who gave her name as Amina.
Opposition parties accuse President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of using the referendum to strengthen his grip on the oil-producing Arab state.
Human rights groups say the amnesty will sweep under the carpet abuses, including the fate of thousands of missing persons and hinder trials.
The charter will pardon rebels in prison, on the run or still fighting and drop other legal proceedings. Those involved in massacres, such as one in 1997 in the Algiers suburb of Bentalha where 400 civilians were killed, are excluded.
It also asks the people to forgive and turn the page on what the president calls a "national tragedy" but it bans Islamists from participating in politics.
Polling stations close at 1800 GMT and initial results were not expected until late in the night. By early afternoon, participation stood at 44 percent of more than 18 million eligible voters. The government forecast a high participation.
In the capital Algiers, many of the voters were elderly men and women. Unlike in previous polls the streets, decked with large posters of Bouteflika and "yes" vote, were crowded and shops were open, suggesting many youths had ignored the vote.
The conflict began after the army cancelled Algeria's second-round of first multi-party legislative election, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was on course to win in 1992.
The violence was gruesome. Rebels were accused of slitting the throats of their victims, carving out unborn children from the wombs of their mothers, burning children in ovens and slaughtering entire villages often at night.
Violence has fallen sharply in recent years, bringing back foreign investment and improving ties with the West, although hundreds of soldiers and civilians are still killed each year.
The authorities now estimate there are between 800 and 1,000 rebels, although only a few hundred are armed and fighting security forces for a purist Islamic state. At its height in the mid-1990s, up to 25,000 men were involved in the insurgency.
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