State Department: Syrian elections are illegitimate

• Published date: 26 May 2021
• Author: Elad Benari
• Publication title: Israel National News (Israel)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in concert with the foreign ministers of the UK, Italy, Germany and France, said in a statement that the Syrian elections were deemed "fraudulent" because they were being held outside of UN supervision.

"We denounce the Assad regime's decision to hold an election outside of the framework described in UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and we support the voices of all Syrians, including civil society organizations and the Syrian opposition, who have condemned the electoral process as illegitimate," the statement added.

The election in Syria is widely expected to give President Bashar Al-Assad a fourth seven-year term.

Assad's Baath party and its allies won a majority in parliamentary elections held across government-held areas of Syria in July, taking 177 seats out of 250.

Unsurprisingly, during the last polls in 2016, Assad's ruling Baath party and its allies won a majority of the chamber's 250 seats.

The Baath party has governed Syria with an iron fist for the past half-century. In 2012...