Syrian regime leader Assad takes fourth term in disputed election

Syrian regime leader Bashar al Assad has extended his time in power to a fourth term, taking 95.1 percent of the votes in an election opponents and the West say was "neither free nor fair".

The controversial vote extending Assad's stranglehold on power was the second since the start of a decade-long civil conflict that has killed more than 388,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure.

The regime says the presidential election on Wednesday shows Syria is functioning normally despite the decade-old war.

Head of parliament Hammouda Sabbagh announced the results at a news conference on Thursday, saying voter turnout was around 78 percent, with more than 14 million Syrians taking part.

Standing against him were former state minister Abdallah Salloum Abdallah and Mahmud Merhi, a member of the so-called "tolerated opposition", long dismissed by exiled opposition leaders as an extension of the regime.

The election went ahead despite a UN-led peace process that had called for voting under international supervision that would help pave the way for a new constitution and a political settlement.

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The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States said in a statement criticising Assad ahead of the election that the vote would not be free or fair. Turkey has also said the election was illegitimate.

The win delivers Assad, 55, seven more years in power and lengthens his family's rule to nearly six decades. His father, Hafez al Assad, led Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000.

Assad's years as president have been defined by the conflict that began in 2011 with peaceful protests before spiralling into a multi-sided war that has fractured the Middle Eastern country and drawn in foreign friends and enemies.

"Thank you to all Syrians for their high sense of nationalism and their notable participation. ... For the future of Syria's children and its youth, let's start from tomorrow our campaign of work to build hope and build Syria," Assad wrote on his campaign's Facebook page.

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Economy in decline 

Assad's biggest challenge, now that he has regained control of around 70 percent of the country, will be an economy in decline.

Syria faces the lowest levels of violence since war erupted in 2011 but with the economy in free fall .

More than 80 percent of the population live in poverty, and the Syrian pound has plunged in value against the dollar, causing skyrocketing inflation.

Tightening US sanctions, neighbouring Lebanon's financial collapse, the Covid-19 pandemic hitting remittances from Syrians abroad and the inability of allies Russia and Iran to provide enough relief, mean prospects for recovery look poor.

Rallies with thousands of people waving Syrian flags and holding pictures of Assad while singing and dancing took place all day Thursday in celebration of the election.

Officials have told Reuters privately that authorities organised the large rallies in recent days to encourage voting, and the security apparatus that underpins Assad's Alawite minority-dominated rule had instructed state employees to vote.

The vote was boycotted by the US-backed Kurdish forces who administer an autonomous oil-rich region in the northeast and in northwestern Idlib region, the last existing opposition enclave, where people denounced the election in large demonstrations on Wednesday.

Assad's two obscure opponents, Abdallah and Marei, barely made a dent in the regime leader's votes.

Marei got 3.3 percent of the vote, while Saloum received 1.5 percent, Sabbagh said.

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