ANTAKYA, Turkey – Millions remain displaced as the nine-year civil war in Syria continues between Russia-backed forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels in the conflict-ravaged country.
But even as the fight continues, parliamentary elections began on Sunday in areas controlled by the longtime leader whose country has become an intractable problem for world powers, attracting the United States, Russia and Turkey.
Around 7,400 polling stations have been set up across the country for Sunday’s vote, according to Syria’s SANA News Agency, which reported that 2,100 candidates will compete for 250 parliamentary seats.
For some Syrian citizens and experts alike, the result is a losing conclusion: the Baad de Assad party is expected to win comfortably.
“This is not a choice, it is an absurd and cheap move made by the Syrian regime,” Haitham Darwish told NBC News by phone from a refugee camp in Idlib province in northern Syria.
“There is no such thing as democracy in areas controlled by Assad’s forces,” said Darwish, 47. The father of six children added that “elections should be held when the country is united and when people can return to their home villages.” “
His comments were echoed by Hatem Ismail, a member of the Yeketi Party of Kurdistan in Syria, from the northern city of Raqqa.
“It is not an electoral process, but a process that designates the names of the parliamentarians who support the current regime,” Ismail, 40, told NBC News by phone. “Where’s democracy here?”
Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the London think tank Chatham House, agreed that the elections would not be “free or fair.”
The Assad regime hoped to demonstrate that “the Syrian state is operating despite the pressures it faces economically and politically,” he said, adding that many of the candidates were businessmen who were internationally sanctioned, while some have close connections to Russia or Iran .
The elections were “more of a preparatory step for the presidential elections to be held next year,” he said. Assad, who has maintained a tight grip on power since he became president just over 20 years ago, “hoped to win” those elections, he said.
While his government was embroiled in a nine-year civil war, which erupted in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprisings that swept across the Middle East, with the backing of Russian forces, in recent years his regime has gradually been able to regain control.
It currently owns 60 to 65 percent of the country, according to the London-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Turkish and Kurdish forces, along with other rebel groups, own the remaining territory.
The bloody conflict has caused “unprecedented devastation and displacement,” according to the United Nations, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and the country economically exhausted.
More than 5 million Syrians have fled the country, many to nearby Lebanon and Turkey, and the UN estimates that at least 6 million people are displaced within the country, making it unclear how many people will be able to vote.
Some, like Mohamed Sharif, who lives in the northeastern city of Qamishli, have promised not to vote in what he called an “illegal” election.
“The regime for nine years so far has never presented a plan for national reconciliation, never presented a plan to resolve existing problems in Syria,” Sharif, 51, told NBC News by phone.
However, Khatib said the election was, however, “a way for the Assad regime to present itself as legitimate in the country and send a message of challenge to the international community.”
NBC News has reached out to the Syrian Presidential Office and the Foreign Ministry for comment on the election.
After casting his vote, Syria’s Information Minister Imad Sarah told reporters: “The elections confirm the true image of democracy in Syria.”
It will be the second time that parliamentary elections have been held in the country since the conflict began. When it first took place in 2016, Western powers denounced the vote as illegitimate, while Russia, a staunch ally of Syria, said the elections were necessary to avoid a power vacuum.
This year’s election has already been postponed twice due to concerns about the coronavirus in the country where 496 cases and 25 deaths from the disease have been reported, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Preventive measures of COVID-19 have been implemented, such as social distancing and the use of personal pens, the SANA News Agency reported, but aid agencies have expressed concern about the Idlib outbreaks.
For Sharif, however, it is not fear of the virus that prevents him from voting, but anger at the elections.
“We are angry … They are illegitimate,” he said.
Ammar Cheikh Homar reported from Antakya, Charlene Gubash from Cairo and Adela Suliman from London.
Reuters contributed to this report.
