At about the time the terms of the unconvincing Syrian truce were announced, the Syrian president himself announced parliamentary elections to take place on Wednesday, April 13, 2016.
Syria’s last parliamentary election was in 2012, in which Assad’s ruling Ba’ath party won 168 out of 250 seats, with 6 going to an opposition party and the rest defined as “non-partisans.” It was the first time multiple parties — not just the Ba’ath party — were allowed to stand
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In the 2014 presidential election, Assad won by 88.7 percent of the votes cast.
A UN Security Council resolution adopted last December calls for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held during an 18-month transition period that would end the five-year-old conflict in Syria.