Syria's President, Bashar Assad has been re-elected for a fourth time with just over 95% of the votes, defeating two opponents.
A spokesperson of the Syrian legislature has reported that the turnout in the election that took place on Wednesday was 78%, with Assad winning over 13 million votes.
Opponent, Mahmoud Ahmad Marei, former secretary-general of the National Front for the Liberation of Syria, received 470,276 votes, approximately 3.1%, while Abdullah Sallum Abdullah of the Socialist Unionist Party came third with 213,968 votes, about 1.5%.
The sum of eligible voters was 14,239,140 out of the 18,107,000 Syrians, Interior Minister Muhammad al-Rahmoun has said.
In a statement released after the results were announced, Assad said:
"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."
Western powers had denounced the election as 'illegitimate' and 'neither be free nor fair', saying that the 'Assad regime' was denying those displaced to vote. Damascus on the other hand, has called the election in accordance with the Syrian constitution. But foreign ministers of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and the US have protested that the election has been held "outside the framework described in UN Security Council Resolution 2254."
Syrians have complained that the reason many other Syrian citizens in the diaspora were unable to vote was because these governments, along with their allies, have closed down Syrian embassies over the past decade. The five western powers that condemned the election have also backed the militants attempting to overthrow the government in Damascus since 2011.
[h/t: Reuters]
COMMENTS