Syria: Assad, Iran, Russia, no democracy
Elections were held on 19 July in regime-controlled areas of Syria, now over 70% of the country. Assad has been in power for over 20 years. This, the third election since the start of the protests in 2011, was postponed because of Covid-19. As in all the others, there was no real opposition to Assad’s Ba’ath party. Even the opposition that is tolerated by Assad boycotts the elections. Karam Shaar, an expert on Syria at the Middle East Institute, was quoted by Al-Jazeera just before the election results. “The al-Assad regime uses parliamentary elections to reward loyalty. This time around...