Syria Says Voter Turnout 51 Percent in Boycotted Election

Posted May 15th, 2012 at 9:35 am (UTC-5)
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Syria says more than half of eligible voters turned out for a May 7 parliamentary election boycotted by opposition groups who said it had no credibility while the government pursues a deadly crackdown on dissent.

Syrian election committee chairman Khalaf al-Izzaoui said Tuesday the voter turnout reached 51 percent, equivalent to five million people. There was no independent monitoring of the election and opposition activists said there was little voting in towns and villages where security forces have been suppressing a 14-month long opposition uprising.

The election official read out a list of winning candidates for the 250-seat Syrian parliament, which has been dominated for decades by the ruling Baath party of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The list included 30 women and one candidate who has described himself as an independent, Qadri Jamil. The Syrian official did not give a breakdown of votes by party or region.

The election was the first to be held since a February referendum approved a new constitution allowing the formation of new parties to compete with Syria's Baath-led coalition. Several new parties participated in last week's vote, but the exiled Syrian National Council opposition coalition dismissed them as government creations.

SNC sources said Tuesday the coalition has voted to extend the term of its leader Burhan Ghalioun by another three months. The sources said Ghalioun, a secular academic, won more than half of the votes cast by members of the SNC's general secretariat at a meeting in Rome. George Sabra, another liberal, came second in the leadership contest.

Syrian Islamists have a dominant role in the SNC and have deemed Ghalioun to be an acceptable figure to the international community. SNC members also include nationalists, Kurds and independents. The opposition group has won recognition from a coalition of anti-Assad nations as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people. But, the SNC has struggled to unify its various factions and has been plagued by personal rivalries.

The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed in violence related to the anti-government uprising which erupted more than a year ago. The Syrian government has blamed armed terrorist groups for much of the country's unrest.