Syrian President Bashar Assad has secured a landslide victory in a wartime election that was condemned as a sham by his opponents but demonstrated his tenacious hold on power after three years of brutal civil war.
Parliamentary speaker Jihad Lahan said Assad had secured 88.7 percent of votes cast in the election, which was held mainly in the central and western parts of the country, where his forces hold sway.
"I declare the victory of Dr. Bashar Hafez Assad as president of the Syrian Arab Republic with an absolute majority of the votes cast in the election," Lahan said in a televised address from his office in the Syrian parliament.