Presidential elections were held in Syria on 3 June 2014. This was the first direct presidential election in Syria since the 1953 presidential election and the first multi-candidate election. The result was a landslide victory for Bashar al-Assad, who received over 90% of the valid votes. He was sworn in for a third seven-year term on 16 July in the presidential palace in Damascus. There is scholarly consensus that the elections were not democratic.
The elections took place amidst the Syrian civil war, which had begun three years before. As a result of the war, the country had the largest refugee population in the world at the time of the elections, with voting for refugees in certain foreign countries began at Syrian embassies several days before voting in Syria. Domestic and foreign-based Syrian opposition groups boycotted the election and voting did not take place in large parts of Syria under rebel control. The areas under Kurdish militia control also did not allow voting due to the refusal of the government to recognize their claim for regional autonomy, though some people traveled to government–controlled areas to vote.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, the European Union and the United States decried the election as illegitimate. Attempts to hold an election under the circumstances of a civil war were also criticized by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and it was widely reported that the elections lacked independent election monitoring.
Background.
Since 2011, the country has been plagued by the Syrian civil war that has factionalised the population largely, but not entirely, along sectarian religious and/or ethnic grounds. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights states that the war has claimed over 150,000 lives. One third of the country's population of 23 million (some 7 million) have been displaced, with 2.5 million as refugees in foreign countries.
A Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that amid the ongoing war and large-scale displacement of Syrian citizens, "such elections are incompatible with the letter and spirit of the Geneva communiqué" and would "damage prospects of a political solution with the opposition. We will, nonetheless, continue to search and build upon any opening to a solution to the tragedy in Syria." Syrian Rebels and opposition parties refused to attend the peace conference (the ultimate goal of the Geneva communiqué) unless Assad was removed from power and barred from any future leadership position. The peace talks had failed before they ever began because what was intended to be a negotiation became only an ultimatum. The derailment of the Peace talks is in stark contrast to the stated goals of the UN towards resolving the conflict.
Refugees.
The 2.5 million refugees and their ability to vote has resulted in several controversies surrounding this election. Hundreds of thousands of refugees who did not leave Syria officially via border posts have been excluded from voting.
In Beirut, Lebanon, which hosts some 1.1 million Syrian refugees, the roads were paralyzed because of the huge number of Syrian refugees and Syrian expatriates already living in Lebanon that wanted to vote at the embassy.
Expatriate voting.
Permitted.
Syrian expatriates were able to vote in the Syrian embassies of the following nations:
Refused.
The following ten countries did not allow expatriate voting to be held in Syrian diplomatic missions. Those foreign governments' decisions were welcomed by the Syrian National Council, a Syrian opposition organization and an opponent of Bashar al-Assad.
Electoral system.
The new constitution, adopted following the 2012 Syrian constitutional referendum, changed the nature of the presidential election from a referendum to a multi-candidate electoral ballot. As a result, this election marks the first time that candidates can challenge the incumbent president; the first nominally democratic election in Syria's history. A law adopted by the Syrian parliament in early 2014 restricts candidacy to individuals who have lived in Syria for the past ten years, thereby preventing exiled people from running.
On 8 April, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi announced that candidates will be able to submit their applications during the last ten days of April. al-Zoubi insisted that despite the ongoing civil war that the election would proceed on schedule, and wouldn't be delayed for any reason. He also claimed that the "overwhelming majority" of Syrians wished to see incumbent President Bashar al-Assad re-elected. al-Zoubi added that government military operations would continue despite the election.
Candidates.
Article 84 of the Constitution of Syria required that candidates for the presidency must:
Further eligibility requirements in the constitution include: 
A total of 24 candidates, including 2 women and a Christian, submitted applications to the Supreme Constitutional Court for the presidency. Of these, two candidates other than Assad met all the conditions to run, including the support of 35 members of the parliament. The two other candidates chosen to run are seen as "mostly symbolic contenders" and "little known figures".
The other 21 candidates that did not meet the criteria were:
Conduct.
The Syrian government said election monitors would not be allowed from the United States, European Union, or the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, but other observers would be present. There were no independent election monitors for the election, but an international delegation did observe the election. It was reported to have included representatives from more than 30 countries including Brazil, India, Iran, Russia, Uganda, the US, and Venezuela. Other delegates expected to join were from China, South Africa, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador and Canada. Among the delegates were Iran's Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Alexey Alexandrov of Russia's ruling United Russia, William Fariñas of Venezuela's ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Benna Namugwanya Bugembe of Uganda's ruling National Resistance Movement, Brazilian Socorro Gomes of the Communist World Peace Council, Indian anti-Zionist activist Feroze Mithiborwala, and US-based pro-Assad activist Paul Larudee.
Results.
The Supreme Constitutional Court announced on Wednesday 4 June that turnout for the election was 73.42%, with 11,634,412 of the 15,845,575 Syrians eligible to take part voting. The number for Syrians eligible to vote is based on the government's data of all Syrians living in Syria and abroad over the age of 18; this includes all Syrians in government-held territory, rebel-held territory, refugees, newly naturalized Kurds, and declared Syrian expatriates.
The number of invalid papers was 442,108, or 3.8%. Majed Khadra, the Spokesperson of the Supreme Constitutional Court, also announced that the losing candidates and individuals with complaints about the electoral process had 3 days to submit their appeals. He stated that the court would decide the outcome in the 7 days following the three-day appeal period, and then would announce the name of the declared winner by means of the Speaker of the People's Assembly. The same day the Speaker of the People's Assembly, Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, announced the raw data results.
Statistician Andrew Gelman suggested that the results could be fabricated based on the unlikely accurate numbers. For example, 10,319,723/11,634,412 = 0.886999962, so the 88.7% of all votes number for Bashar al-Assad is correct to the nearest single voter. Similarly, the proportion for NIACS comes out at 0.042999938 and for the Independent party at 0.031999985. But whilst Gelman argues that the published counts were fabricated, he notes that it does not preclude the theory that those numbers could have been generated retrospectively (and unprofessionally) from "valid" percentages. The proportion reported for turnout, 0.734237287, does not exhibit the unusual property found in the vote counts.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace analyst Aron Lund noted that [T]he government claims that a total of 11,634,412 Syrians took part in the election. Assad currently controls some 60 percent of Syria’s approximately 22 million citizens—maybe even more—but two out of five would have been too young to vote. Even under the demonstrably false premise that every single adult in Assad-held territory went to the polls and was joined by every single adult refugee abroad, the result would still be a million or so short of the official figure.
Reactions.
International.
Expressions of concern.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, the European Union and the United States all decried the election as illegitimate and a farce.
State employees were told to vote or face interrogation. There were no independent monitors stationed at the polling stations. As few as 6 million eligible voters remained in Syria. Due to rebel Kurdish and ISIS control of Syrian territories there was no voting in roughly 60% of the country.
References.
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