Polls opened in Syria on Tuesday in government-held areas, against the backdrop of a country torn apart by three years of a devastating civil war.
President Bashar Assad is widely expected to win the elections, which Syrian opposition forces and U.S. officials have called a sham. This is not the first time that Syria will see unfair elections: When Assad came to power 14 years ago, he ran unopposed, gaining more than 99% of votes, state media said at the time. In 2007, Assad won again with a similarly astonishing share of the vote, CNN reports.
Activists say that the conflict in Syria has killed more than 160,000 people. For more on Syria’s elections, watch TIME’s report from Damascus on daily life ahead of the vote.
Syria’s Farcical Election Will Boost Assad
Syrians go to the polls in the Baset Alasad Sport Complex in Lattakia, Syria on June 3, 2014.Hassan Ghaedi—PolarisSyria's President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma cast their votes at a polling station in Damascus June 3, 2014.SANA/ReutersSyrians wave national flags from their cars to show their support to Bashar al-Assad during the country's presidential elections in Damascus on June 3, 2014.Louai Beshara‚—AFP/Getty ImagesA banner with a picture of Syrian President Bashar Assad with a slogan reading in Arabic, " we build it together" hangs on a destroyed building in the Homs neighborhood of Khaldiyeh on May 3, 2014. Joseph Eid—AFP/Getty ImagesA Syrian woman rides in a car painted in the colors of the Syrian flag with President Bashar Assad's portrait in Damascus on June 3, 2014.Dusan Vranic—APA Syrian man prepares to cast his vote at a polling station at the Umm al-Zunnar church in the city of Homs, north of Damascus, on June 3, 2014.Joseph Eid—AFP/Getty ImagesWomen walk past election posters of Bashar al-Assad along a street in Damascus on June 2, 2014.Khaled Al Hariri—ReutersSyrian Defence Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij casting his ballot at a polling station in Damascus on June 3, 2014.SANA/EPASyrian students sit in front of a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad at a polling station in the Baath University of Homs, north of Damascus, on June 3, 2014.Joseph Eid—AFP/Getty ImagesSyrian supporters of presidential candidate Bashar al-Assad attend a march in Damascus on June 3, 2014.Xinhua/Sipa USA
