Bashar al-Assad won 88.7 percent of the vote in Syria's presidential election, parliament speaker Mohammad al-Laham said on Wednesday, securing a third term in office despite a raging civil war which grew out of protests against his rule, according to The Associated Press.
Assad's foes had dismissed the election as a charade, saying the two relatively unknown challengers offered no real alternative and that no poll held in the midst of civil war could be considered credible, the AP reported.
The election was boycotted by the opposition, and ignored and even ridiculed in rebel-held areas where fighting continues. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was among those in the West who denounced the balloting, calling it "a great big zero," according to the AP.
While the balloting and much of the pro-Assad spectacle seen on the streets of Damascus was stage-managed, even the president's staunchest enemies concede that the man who has led Syria since 2000 retains substantial backing, the AP reported.
"I declare the victory of Dr Bashar Hafez al-Assad as president of the Syrian Arab Republic with an absolute majority of the votes cast in the election," Laham said in a televised address from his office in the Syrian parliament, according to the AP.
Syria's constitutional court earlier said that turnout in Tuesday's election and an earlier round of voting for Syrian expatriates stood at 73 percent, the AP reported.
Syrian officials had described the predicted victory as vindication of Assad's three-year campaign against those fighting to oust him, according to the AP.
Voting took place in government-controlled areas of Syria, but not in large parts of northern and eastern Syria held by rebels fighting to end 44 years of Assad family rule, the AP reported.
The conflict has killed 160,000 people, driven nearly 3 million abroad as refugees and displaced many more inside Syria, according to the AP.
