Syria: Bashar Al-Assad Elected President For The Fourth Time

Bashar al-Assad received more than 95 per cent of the vote, according to official results. However, the results are as expected, while the international community has called the election process ‘illegitimate’.

Announcing the results of the presidential election on Thursday, May 27, the speaker of Syria’s parliament, Hammoud Sabbagh, said that President Bashar al-Assad had won the presidential election for the fourth time. He received 95.1% of the vote. He also said that 78.66 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in these elections.

Announcing this, the Syrian government said on its Twitter account that Syrian citizens have their say. Bashar al-Assad has won the presidential election in the Syrian Arab Republic after receiving 95.1% of the vote inside and outside the country.

With this major victory, Bashar al-Assad has regained the presidency in Syria for the next seven years after two or four years of civil war, while his government claims that these elections show that everything is normal in Syria.

But the reality is that the country has been embroiled in a civil war for the past ten years in which more than half a million people have been killed so far and about one and a half million Syrians, about half of the country’s population, have been displaced by the civil war. And are forced to live abroad as refugees.

Doubts over the transparency of elections

The United States and European countries have already questioned the legitimacy of the election, saying it was a clear violation of a UN resolution. These countries have strongly criticized the Assad government’s decision to hold elections outside the framework set out in UN Security Council Resolution 2254, and all of them, including civil society organizations and Syrian opposition parties.

Western nations say the election is neither free nor fair. According to him, these fraudulent elections were arranged by President Bashar al-Assad himself and thus his victory was assured once again.

Voting was possible only in areas controlled by the Assad government, and many refugees who have been forced to flee the country in recent years due to the civil war have not been able to participate, although most are interested. Did not even demonstrate.

Syrian authorities allowed only three candidates to run in the presidential election, while dozens of other aspirants were not allowed. Bashar al-Assad faced only two candidates, Hassan al-Nouri of the National Initiative for Administration and Change in Syria (NIACS) and Maher Hajjar, who ran as an independent.

The political situation in Syria

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with pro-President Bashar al-Assad and pro-democracy groups fighting his army since the Arab Spring. The opposition group also includes some jihadist organizations, with the help of which insurgent groups initially seized large areas such as Homs and Aleppo.

But with the help of Russian forces, Assad’s army has regained control of most of the area. Only the northern Syrian region of Idlib remains under opposition control. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed so far in the fighting, while tens of millions have been displaced.

Bashar al-Assad is the successor to his father, Hafiz al-Assad, who came to power in 2000. Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, Assad has taken a hard line with the opposition, calling them terrorists.

Also Read

Syria: Presidential Election Continues, West Condemns Voting Process

Voting for the presidential election began this evening in Syria. President Bashar...