Syrians vote in parliamentary poll as violence rages

Syrians voted in a parliamentary election yesterday touted by authorities as a milestone of political reform, but dismissed by the opposition as a facade while people are killed every day in an anti-government uprising.

Violence persisted across the country between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels fighting to end four decades of dynastic rule by his family.

“All of this is a theatre show. The candidates are businessmen and pawns of strong people in power,” one man, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters near a polling station in the capital.

In northern Idlib province, residents reported gunfire and explosions and in the city of Hama rebels and soldiers clashed early yesterday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In the province of Deir al-Zor, three dissidents were killed in a dawn raid by government troops, the Observatory added, underlining the challenge of holding a credible poll and complicating the task of UN observers monitoring a ceasefire declared on Apr 12.

Unlike autocratic leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen who were toppled by the Arab Spring, Assad has kept enough support among the military and his Alawite sect, which dominates the army and security apparatus, to withstand the 14-month-old revolt.

Assad dismisses the uprising as the work of foreign-backed “terrorists” and, counting on the diplomatic support of longtime ally Russia, says he will carry out his own reform programme.