Bashar al Assad was re-elected President of Syria with 95.1% of the vote in an election described as a “farce”

Bashar al Assad was re-elected, unsurprisingly, President of Syria for a fourth term, in an election held in a country ravaged by bloody war, despite accusations from the West that the the elections were not “Neither free nor fair.”

At an evening press conference, the Speaker of Parliament, Hammud sabbagha, announced that Bashar al Assad was re-elected with 95.1% of the vote.

According to Sabbagha, 14.2 million people went to the polls, of the 18.1 million theoretically called to vote, which implies a 76.64% turnout.

Propelled to power in 2000, Assad replaced his father Hafez, who died after 30 years in power with an iron fist. On Tuesday, he criticized Western countries, starting with the United States and European countries, which considered that the elections were not free.

In 2014, he obtained more than 88% of the votes, according to official results.

Gigantic needs

it’s about the second presidential elections since the start of a war in 2011 involving numerous belligerents and foreign powers. Initiated by the repression of pro-democratic demonstrations within the framework of the Arab Spring, the conflict has left more than 388,000 dead and drove millions of Syrians into exile.

According to the archives, the country officially has just under 18 million voters. But with the country’s fragmentation by war and the exile of millions of people, the number of voters is actually lower.

In a country with a crumbling economy and dilapidated infrastructure, Al Assad presented himself as the man of reconstruction, after having chained the military battles with the support of Russia e Iran, his loyal allies, and have reclaimed two-thirds of the territory.

In a Syria polarized by war, the Kurdish autonomous regions of the north-east will ignore the elections, just like the last one jihadist stronghold Yes rebel of Idlib (Northwest), where about three million people live.

In front of Assad, two personalities considered as puppets appeared: the former minister and parliamentarian Abdallah Sallum Abdallah and a member of the opposition tolerated by the government, Mahmud Marei | According to the President of Parliament, they obtained 1.5% and 3.3% of the vote respectively.

Election law requires candidates to have lived in Syria for ten consecutive years prior to the election. The opposition figures in exile have been de facto excluded, very weakened. Its main coalition denounced that the elections were a “farce”.

“Your opinions are worth nothing”, Al Assad said this week, referring to Western countries which had considered that the elections were not “Neither free nor fair.”

The elections were held in their entirety economic quagmire, with a historic depreciation of the currency, galloping inflation and over 80% of the population living in poverty, according to the United Nations.

Syria, like Assad himself, is subject to international sanctions. And the reconstruction needs are gigantic. A recent report from the NGO World vision puts the economic cost of war at over $ 1.2 trillion (just over $ 1 trillion).

(With information from AFP)

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