Assad wins Syrian elections with 88.7 percent of votes

Unidentified demonstrators support President Bashar al -Assad of Syria outside the Geneva headquarters of the UN, January 31, 2014, Geneva, Switzerland. FILE PHOTO Martin Good / Shutterstock

DAMASCUS — In Syrian presidential elections, Bashar al-Assad, getting 10,319,723 votes which counts for 88.7 percent, was elected as Syrian president.

Syrian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Jihad al-Laham appeared on TV and declared results of the presidential elections, which indicated a landslide victory by Bashar al-Assad.

The two other candidates received totally less than a million votes.

Al-Laham said that 11,840,575 persons (73.42 percent of eligible voters) cast their votes in the presidential elections on Tuesday.

Syrian Supreme Elections Committee had declared the total number of eligible voters in the country 15,840,575 persons.

Bashar al-Assad, son of late Hafiz al-Assad, former Syrian president, has been in power since 2000.

Syrian people, for the first time in their political history, participated in a competitive elections on Tuesday.

Following amending Syrian Constitution in year 2012, presidential elections became competitive and the president can be in power only for two seven-year terms.