PRIME Minister Adel Safar urged Syrians to vote in local elections to save the nation from “conspiracies against us”, but activists struggling to oust President Bashar-al Assad rejected the ballot as irrelevant at a time of violent unrest.

SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad has appointed Adel Safar, who served as agriculture minister in the government which resigned last week, to form a new government, an official Syrian source said yesterday.