Official results: Assad's party won Syrian elections

Syria's ruling Baath Party and its allies have predictably won a majority of parliamentary seats in the parliamentary elections held on April 13 in territories controlled by the regime, according to official results, reports the Patria News Agency. 

According to the election commission, the Baath Party of President Bashar al-Assad, which has been in power for half a century, won a large majority of the 250 seats in parliament. All 200 candidates of the "National Unity" list, to which the party belongs, won in several provinces of the country ravaged by war for five years, the pro-government daily Al-Watan reported on Sunday. The voter turnout was 57.56 percent, according to the commission, reports the official Sana agency.

Slightly more than 5 million potential voters went to the polls to choose among 3,500 candidates in these elections, which the exiled opposition calls illegitimate. In Syria, a country with about 23 million inhabitants before the conflict, 13.5 million are affected or displaced due to the war, according to the UN, writes Hina.