Dictator Bashar al-Assad wins 95% of the vote in Syria

Election results in Syria were announced on May 27th. These were the second presidential elections since the conflict began 10 years ago. The opposition and Western countries have called them fraud.

The government said more than 12,000 polling stations were set up across the country for the 26 May elections.

In northeastern Syria it was not voted, as that region is controlled by US-backed Kurdish fighters. The elections were not even organized in the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in this country.

For Syrians living abroad, the ballot boxes were opened last week at Syria embassies, but they were required to present a valid passport that had to have the seal of exit from the country.

This request did not fail to vote on millions of refugees living abroad

Several countries opposing Assad blocked the vote, including Turkey and Germany, which maintain large Syrian refugee communities.

Syrian civil war erupted in 2011 when the protests against Assad turned into an armed uprising in response to a brutal military crackdown on Assad's forces. Fighting has left nearly half a million people dead and half the country's population displaced, including more than 5 million refugees outside Syria. / REL