Presidential election in Syria: only half of voters had the opportunity to vote
For the first time since the start of the war in Syria, the government organized a presidential election on Wednesday in which outgoing President Bashar al-Assad is given the favorite in the absence of serious rivals.
But counting the 5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon, only half of the 18 million voters had the opportunity to participate in this presidential election.
AFP - LOUAI BESHARA
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
For the first time since the start of the war in Syria, the government organized a presidential election on Wednesday in which outgoing President Bashar al-Assad is given the favorite in the absence of serious rivals.
The opposition denounced a "
staging
", and the Western countries a ballot "
neither free nor fair
".
Publicity
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With our correspondent in Beirut
,
Paul Khalifeh
Bashar al-Assad voted with his wife Asma in the city of Douma, capital of the former rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, east of Damascus.
Surrounded by a crowd of voters, he swept aside Western criticisms claiming they were "
worthless
".
Government and pro-Syrian media have shown images of crowds of voters chanting slogans praising Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and other pro-regime regions, which controls two-thirds of the territory.
Many localities refused to install ballot boxes
But in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the revolt in 2011, and reconquered by the Syrian army, more than forty localities, administered by ex-rebels, refused to install ballot boxes.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, these regions which shunned the ballot are home to nearly 500,000 inhabitants.
Elections also failed to take place in Idleb's last jihadist stronghold in the northwest, where more than three million people live.
In areas under Kurdish administration in the northeast, populated by three million people, the ballot was ignored, with the exception of government-controlled neighborhoods in the towns of Qamichli and Hassaké.
Including the 5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon, only half of the 18 million voters actually had the opportunity to participate in this presidential election.
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To read: Presidential election in Syria: an election decided in advance
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