Assad wins fourth term at Syrian polls deemed fraudulent by West
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People celebrating in the streets of Aleppo on Thursday as Mr Bashar al-Assad was re-elected for a fourth term as president of war-ravaged Syria. The election - which opponents and the West say was marked by fraud - went ahead despite a United Nations-led peace process that had called for voting under international supervision.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BEIRUT • Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won a fourth term in office with 95.1 per cent of the votes in an election that will extend his rule over a country ruined by war, but which opponents and the West say was marked by fraud.
Mr Assad's government said the election on Wednesday shows Syria is functioning normally despite the decade-old conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven 11 million people - about half the population - from their homes.
Head of Parliament Hammouda Sabbagh announced the results at a news conference on Thursday, saying voter turnout was around 78 per cent, with more than 14 million Syrians taking part.
The election went ahead despite a United Nations-led peace process that had called for voting under international supervision, which would help pave the way for a new Constitution and a political settlement.
The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States said in a statement criticising Mr Assad ahead of the election that the vote would not be free or fair. Turkey, an Assad adversary, has also said the election was illegitimate.
The win delivers Mr Assad, 55, seven more years in power and lengthens his family's rule to nearly six decades. His father Hafez al-Assad led Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000.
Mr Assad's presidency has been defined by the conflict, which began in 2011 with peaceful protests before spiralling into a multi-sided conflict that has fractured the Middle Eastern country and drawn in foreign friends and enemies.
"Thank you to all Syrians for their high sense of nationalism and their notable participation... For the future of Syria's children and its youth, let's start from tomorrow our campaign of work to build hope and build Syria," he wrote on his campaign's Facebook page.
Mr Assad's biggest challenge, now that he has regained control of around 70 per cent of the country, will be an economy in decline.
Tightening US sanctions, neighbouring Lebanon's financial collapse, the Covid-19 pandemic hitting remittances from Syrians abroad and the inability of allies Russia and Iran to provide enough relief, mean that prospects for recovery look poor.
Rallies with thousands of people waving Syrian flags and holding pictures of Mr Assad while singing and dancing took place all day on Thursday in celebration of the election.
Officials have told Reuters privately that the authorities organised the large rallies to encourage voting, and the security apparatus that underpins Mr Assad's Alawite minority-dominated rule had instructed state employees to vote.
The vote was boycotted by the US-backed Kurdish-led forces which administer an autonomous, oil-rich region in the north-east and in north-western Idlib region, the last existing rebel enclave, where people denounced the election in large protests on Wednesday.
Mr Assad ran against two obscure candidates - former deputy Cabinet minister Abdallah Saloum Abdallah and Mr Mahmoud Ahmed Marei, head of a small, officially sanctioned opposition party. Mr Marei received 3.3 per cent of the vote, while Mr Saloum received 1.5 per cent, Mr Sabbagh said.
REUTERS