Damascus, MINA – Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was declared the winner of presidential elections held with non-functional candidates on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reported.
The election results were announced by the country’s news agency SANA.
According to SANA, the Speaker of the Parliament of the Hamouda Sabbagh announced to the press that Assad won with 95.1 percent of the vote.
He claims the turnout is around 78 percent, while more than half of the country’s people cannot go to the polls.
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Sabbagh stated that Assad received 13.5 million votes, while Mahmoud Ahmad Marei, one of the candidates, received 3.3 percent or 470,276 votes.
Assad has been a winner in every general election since taking power in 2000 as heir to his father, Hafez al-Assad.
The decision to hold elections was made despite ongoing military conflicts, a lack of political solutions, failed negotiations between the opposition and the regime, and the displacement of more than 10 million Syrians either as refugees or internally displaced.
In addition, about 40 percent of the country is not under regime control.
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Syria has been locked in a civil war since early 2011, when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with violence.
Over the past decade, about half a million people have been killed and more than 12 million have had to flee their homes. (T/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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