BEIRUT – Syrians expatriates and those who fled the war began casting their votes at embassies abroad Thursday ahead of next week’s vote inside the country that is all but guaranteed to give President Bashar Assad a fourth seven-year term as president.
In Beirut, a few hundred of Assad supporters turned up early at the hilltop embassy outside the capital to cast their ballot.
The election is the second since the country’s civil war broke out 10 years ago and is seen by the opposition as well as Western and some Arab countries as a sham designed to give the incumbent a new mandate with a veneer of legitimacy.
The vote is to be held in Syria May 26, with Syrians abroad voting Thursday. Assad has been in power since 2000 when he took over