Bashar al-Assad Wins Presidential Vote In Landslide With 88.7 Percent – Parliament Speaker

 

Syrian soldiers walks past a bus with President Bashar Assad's portrait in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday June 3, 2014. Credit: AP Photo/Dusan Vranic

Assad has secured a third term in office despite an ongoing civil war that grew out of protests against his rule.
The election was held on June 3 but only in government-held areas and not in large parts of northern and eastern Syria held by rebels. Syria's constitutional court said that turnout stood at 73 percent.

"I declare the victory of Dr Bashar Hafez al-Assad as president of the Syrian Arab Republic with an absolute majority of the votes cast in the election," Laham said in a televised address from his office in the Syrian parliament, Reuters reports.
Assad's foes had dismissed the election as a farce, saying the two relatively unknown rivals offered no real alternative and that no credible poll could be held in the midst of civil war.
This was the first time in four decades that Syrians were choosing from more than one candidate. The last seven presidential elections were referenda to approve Bashar or his father, Hafez al-Assad, who never scored less than 99 percent. Bashar al-Assad got 97.6 percent seven years ago.
The war has claimed lives of about 160,000 people and displaced millions inside and outside Syria.
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