Bashar al-Assad swept Syria with 95% …

Bashar al Asad was re-elected, unsurprisingly, president of Syria in order to a fourth term, in an election held in a country ravaged by bloody war, despite accusations from the West that the elections were “neither free nor fair”.

At an evening press conference, Parliament Speaker Hammud Sabbagha announced that Bashar al Assad had been re-elected with 95.1% of the vote. According to Sabbagha, 14.2 million people went to the polls, out of the 18.1 million theoretically called to vote, which implies a participation rate of 76.64. percent.

Propelled to power in 2000, Asad 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.

Russian president Vladimir Poutine He congratulated Assad on his victory in the presidential elections in Syria and told him in a telegram that this victory confirms his high political authority. “The results of the vote confirmed his high political authority and the confidence of his fellow citizens,” Putin said according to a Kremlin statement, adding that Assad had allowed the Syrians to see “the rapid stabilization of the situation” in the country.

In turn, Iran congratulated Assad on his “firm victory” in the presidential election in Syria, which he described as “an important step” towards peace in that country. “Islamic Republic of Iran congratulates President Assad and the Syrian people resisting for their unwavering victory in this election, “the Iranian Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement.” The successful holding of the elections and the massive participation of the Syrian people is an important step in establishing peace. ”

Even before the results were announced, as the review was about to end, tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets in different cities across the country. In the western coastal town of Tartus, crowds waved flags and carried portraits of Bashar al Assad, while others danced and drummed, according to images broadcast on Syrian TV. Thousands of people have also focused on Latakia, also by the sea and in the capital, Damascus. At Sweida, in the south of the country, a crowd gathered in front of the seat of the governor and in Aleppo several men set up a platform.

– Gigantic needs –

This is the second presidential election since the start of a war in 2011 in which many belligerents and foreign powers participate. Begun with the crackdown on pro-democracy protests within the framework of the Arab Spring, the conflict has left more than 388,000 dead and led millions of Syrians into exile.

According to records, the country officially has just under 18 million voters. But with the country’s fragmentation through 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, Bashar al Asad presented himself as the man of reconstruction, having chained military battles with the support of Russia and Iran, his loyal allies, and having recovered two thirds of the territory.

In a war-polarized Syria, the Kurdish self-governing regions of the northeast will ignore the elections, as will the last jihadist and rebel stronghold 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 the Parliament, they obtained respectively 1.5 and 3.3% of the votes.

Election law requires candidates to have lived in Syria for ten consecutive years before the elections, so very weakened opposition figures in exile have been de facto excluded. Its main coalition denounced that the elections were a sham. “Your opinions are worth nothing”Al Asad said this week, referring to Western countries, which had felt that the elections were neither free nor fair.

The elections took place in the midst of an economic slump, with historic currency depreciation, rampant inflation and more than 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 by the NGO puts the economic cost of war over $ 1.2 trillion.