أقبال الناخبين على الانتخابات الخادعة

The balloting, Syria’s first multi-candidate election in more than 40 years, comes as a devastating, three-year civil war that activists say has killed more than 160,000 people, about a third of them civilians, rages on.

As voting got under way, activists reported fighting, shelling and air raids in rebel-held areas of the country.

Previous elections saw voters handed ballots with just one member of the Assad family’s name on.

This ballot includes two other candidates, Maher Hajjar and Hassan al-Nouri, who are not widely known in the country. Both were vetted by the government and President Bashar is widely expected to win a third term in office.

The opposition’s Western and regional allies, including the US, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have called the vote a farce and the opposition and government critics have widely condemned as a sham.