Syrian President has an Opponent in June Election

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad will face at least one other candidate in June’s presidential election. A 46-year old communist member of parliament, Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar, threw his hat into the ring, according to an announcement made by the speaker of the Parliament and reported by state-run television. Hajjar was involved in the original Arab Spring demonstrations in 2011 that eventually escalated into the devastating civil war that is now in its fourth year. Assad has been president since his father died in 2000 and has drawn sharp international criticism for his decision to hold elections amid the death and destruction of the civil war. More than 150,000 Syrians have been killed and millions have been displaced from their homes.