Still reeling from its ongoing and devastating decade-long civil war, Syria on Wednesday held presidential elections, with dictator Bashar al-Assad expected to easily defeat his two preapproved challengers in a staged affair condemned by Western countries as a farce. In the previous sham elections, held in 2014 during the height of battle between Assad’s Russian-backed military and Syrian rebels, the authoritarian incumbent secured over 92% of the vote. Close to half a million Syrians have died in the bloody crackdown waged by Assad against dissidents since 2011, with nearly 13 million more either displaced or fleeing the country. The US secretary of state, UK foreign secretary, and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Italy, in a joint statement said that the election “will neither be free nor fair.” According to Syria’s state news agency, the People’s Assembly, the country’s legislative authority, voted to invite representatives of countries including Iran, Venezuela, China, Russia and Cuba to monitor and supervise the election.
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