Syria Votes: Parliamentary Elections Held in the Country as War Winds Down

By Staff, Agencies

Syrians went to the polls to elect a new parliament and put bitter years of war behind them, even as the country strives to liberate territories still controlled by foreign-backed militants.

More than 7,400 polling stations opened at 7:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, including in former militant strongholds of Eastern Ghouta, east of central Damascus, and the southern countryside of the northwestern Idlib province.

Portraits of the 1,658 contenders have been displayed across the capital for weeks, including several prominent businessmen.

Many candidates are running on a platform to curb inflation and renovate the infrastructure ravaged by nine years of conflict.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Baath party and his allies are expected to win most of the parliament's 250 seats in the third such polls to be held in Syria ever since foreign-sponsored militancy broke out in March 2011. The two previous polls were staged in May 2012 and April 2016 respectively. In the last legislative elections in 2016, turnout stood at 57.56 percent.

The elections, twice postponed from April due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, come weeks after the United States imposed new economic sanctions on Syria under the so-called Caesar Act.