Al-Assad’s re-election as President of Syria, with 95% of the vote
Syrian celebrations of Assad's victory in the streets of Aleppo.
A.F.B.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won a new presidential term of seven years, after receiving 95.1% of the vote in the elections that took place on Wednesday, according to official results released Thursday night.
When announcing the official results, the Speaker of the People's Assembly, Hammouda Sabbagh, said that al-Assad, who is 55 years old, “won the post of President of the Syrian Arab Republic,” after obtaining “13,540,860 votes, 95.1% of the number of votes cast.”
He added that the total number of those who cast their votes inside and outside Syria amounted to 14,239,140 out of the 18.1 million registered voters on the voters' lists, indicating that the turnout reached 78.64%.
The other two candidates who competed with Assad in these elections, former minister and deputy Abdullah Salloum Abdullah, and lawyer Mahmoud Mari, from the regime's acceptable internal opposition, and both of them were not widely known, received 1.5% and 3.3% of the votes, respectively.
This is the second presidential election in Syria since the conflict erupted in 2011, and elections were held in areas under government control only, while they were absent from the Kurdish-controlled areas (northeast), Hayat Tahrir al-Sham areas, and pro-Ankara factions (north and northwest).
In 2014, Assad was re-elected with 88% of the vote, according to official results.
Thousands of Syrians gathered in Umayyad Square in Damascus, and in Tishreen Park, on Thursday evening, to celebrate the announcement of the results, according to official media.
Syrian TV broadcast scenes showing mass gatherings in several cities and towns, most notably the coastal cities of Tartous and Latakia, and the city of Aleppo (north).
As soon as al-Assad’s victory was announced, heavy gunfire erupted in several parts of Damascus to celebrate the result, while fireworks and firecrackers lit up the darkness of the capital’s sky, while cars drove up the Syrian flag and pictures of the president.
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