The poll, which is the first multi-candidate presidential election in Syria in the past four decades, was slammed as a "farce" by the West and pro-opposition regional powers, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The reelection of Assad raised concerns over the prospects of future negotiations with the opposition.
Assad is challenged by Hassan al-Nouri, a rich businessman in Damascus and former minister, and Maher Hajjar, a lawmaker from Aleppo, the second largest city.
Polls opened at 7 am Tuesday. It was scheduled to last 12 hours, but state media said voting was extended by five hours until midnight to allow more people to participate due to heavy turnout.
The interior ministry said more than 15 million Syrians were eligible to take part in the election, on top of the 200,000 who already voted abroad last week. There are more than 9,600 polling stations in areas controlled by the regime. Rebel-held regions, including large areas of Aleppo, are boycotting the election.
Syrian officials confidently predicted a big turnout and said that a high level of participation would be as significant as the result itself.
- "The size of the turnout is a political message," Information Minister Omran Zoabi told Reuters on Monday night. "The armed terrorist groups have increased their threats because they fear [a high level of] participation," he said, referring to the rebels.
- "If these terrorist groups had any popularity it would be enough to ensure the failure of the election," he said. "But they realize they have no popularity, so they want to affect the level of participation so they can say the turnout was low."
In Damascus, people voted as the sound of shelling and explosions punctuated pro-Assad songs heard playing in the streets. Fighter jets hovered around over the capital, which is rare even though the country is fighting a civil war.
Assad, looking relaxed and wearing a dark blue suit and light blue tie, voted at a central Damascus polling station with his wife Asma, footage from state TV showed.
At a polling station in the Ministry of Information, Aboud al-Aboud, a volunteer, told the Global Times that the result is expected after two days.
- Dozens of voters at the polling station told the Global Times that they voted for Assad and called for peace and prosperity in the country.
It is widely expected that Assad is poised to win another seven-year term, but with a slightly lower percentage. He won 97 percent of votes in 2000, when his father passed away after ruling the country for nearly three decades, and won reelection in 2007 with 97.62 percent of votes.
Despite the high support for Assad in regions under the control of the government, some people abstained from the poll. A 30-year-old Damascus resident, who gave his name as Hossam, was one of them. "No matter we go to the poll or not, or whoever we vote for, the result will be the same. It's only a play directed by the government," he told the Global Times.
Iran, North Korea and Russia sent observers to monitor the election.
The UN has warned the election will only complicate efforts to re-launch peace talks after two rounds of abortive negotiations in Switzerland this year.
"It's a tragic farce," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. "The Syrians in a zone controlled by the Syrian government have a choice of Bashar or Bashar," he told France 2 television.
- The vote "does not fulfill international standards for free, fair and transparent elections and I am sure no [NATO] ally will recognize the outcome of these so-called elections," said NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"Assad will feel vindicated by his reelection and will likely reject any proposed meaningful negotiations with the opposition," the paper commented.
The exiled opposition has made Assad's departure from power a precondition for any negotiated settlement and his reelection is likely to scupper any hope of getting them back to the negotiating table any time soon.
However, casting his ballot in Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that "a political solution to the Syrian crisis begins today."
By Huan Xiang in Damascus Source:Global Times Published: 2014-6-4 0:53:01
[globaltimes.cn]
4/6/14
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