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Syria’s enemies frustrated over election results, huge voter turnout: Lebanese journalist

Saturday, 29 May 2021 6:25 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 29 May 2021 6:25 PM ]

Syrians waving national flags celebrate in the streets of the capital Damascus, a day after an election gave the current President Bashar al-Assad a fourth term, on May 27, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

A prominent Lebanese journalist tells Press TV that the results of Syria’s presidential election frustrated the Arab country’s enemies, who were after exerting political and economic pressures on Damascus to reach their objectives.

Nasser Qandil, the editor-in-chief of Lebanon’s al-Binaa newspaper, said the huge turnout at the election and the Syrian people’s celebration over the result of the poll demonstrated that the country’s destiny is in the hands of its people.

“Those who think they can break Syrians’ determination via war and siege are mistaken,” Qandil said.

“Bashar al-Assad’s victory was not merely [for] holding an election, but rather, this process marks a historic turning point in transformation ... to another level, which is bypassing divergence, civil war, ethnic and tribal sedition, and moving toward the formation of a patriotic and inclusive and developed government in a region at risk of unrest.”

He said those who waged war against Syria were seeking to dictate their political solutions to Syrian leaders by laying a siege and imposing economic sanctions as well as undermining the country’s national currency.

Assad won a fourth term in office in the Wednesday presidential election, securing over 95 percent of the popular vote in a landslide. He earned over 13,500,000 votes out of some 14,200,000 ballots cast inside and outside the country.

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Qandil noted that Syria’s enemies wrongly assumed that the economic situation in Syria would lead to a low turnout in the election.

He also told Press TV that some countries prevented their Syrian residents from voting in Syrian embassies and others tried to show pictures of empty embassies.

The political analyst referred to the latest war between Palestinian resistance groups and the Israeli regime, saying that following the recent Palestinian victory, Syria's resurgence in power was accompanied by a weakening of Israel.

Syria fell victim to a foreign-backed militancy that began in March 2011, with some Western and regional countries aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that fought Assad’s government. Millions of Syrians have been displaced as a result of the war.

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