JEDDAH: Syrians voted for a new parliament on Sunday in elections denounced by exiled opposition leaders as a farce and a charade.
Regime leader Bashar Assad’s Baath Party and its allies will win almost all 250 seats in the third poll since the civil war began in 2011. Millions of Syrian refugees and those in opposition-held territory did not vote.
The election took place against a background of a collapsing economy, crippling international economic sanctions, and the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
There have been no genuine elections in Syria since the Assad family seized power 50 years ago, said senior opposition figure Nasr Al-Hariri.
“Everything called an election has been a farce under security and military grip ... to form a sham parliament for the regime to use to pass legislation to serve the gang in power,” he said.
“All that has changed today is that half the Syrian people have been forced to flee.”
More than 380,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced from their homes since the conflict began with a violent crackdown on anti-government protests.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition said the vote was a “theatrical election by the Assad regime.” Another opposition leader, Obeida Nahhas, said the elections were a “blatant charade” that had been going on for 50 years.
“The length of the era of dictatorship and tyranny has produced a situation that does not reflect the opinion of the popular majority,” he said. “It has emptied elections of their true democratic meaning.”
The elections, originally scheduled for April, were postponed twice because of the pandemic. There were more than 1,600 candidates, many of them prominent business figures, and voting took place at more than 7,000 polling stations in regime-held areas and territory recaptured from opposition forces in the past two years.
At a polling station in Damascus, voters said they were worried about the rising cost of living.
“We have to find a solution for the living conditions,” said Samer Mahmoud, who owns a clothing shop.
