Bashar al-Assad announced as the winner of the Syrian presidential election

Syria’s incumbent leader Bashar al-Assad has been announced as the winner of the country’s presidential election.
On Wednesday, Syrian People’s Assembly speaker Jihad al-Laham announced that Assad won 88.7 percent of the vote, or 10,319,723 of 11,634,412 votes cast in Tuesday’s election, the official SANA news agency reported.
The country’s Supreme Constitutional Court also announced that 73.42% of the 15.8 million eligible voters had taken part in the election.
It added that no complaints had been received from any of the candidates regarding the voting process.
Following the announcement, crowds took to streets throughout the country to celebrate the victory of the incumbent president.
Earlier in the day, authorities began the procedure of checking the number of votes against the lists of registered voters to ensure that the numbers matched.
Meanwhile, international delegates observing the presidential election released a statement calling the vote democratic and transparent.
Assad, MP Maher al-Hajjar, and businessman Hassan al-Nouri were competing for the top post.
Assad will be the country’s next president for the coming seven years.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. Over 160,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced due to the violence fueled by the foreign-backed militants.
According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.