Polling stations opened on Wednesday across Syria in a presidential election that is set to usher Bashar al-Assad into a fourth term in office. In Damascus University's Faculty of Arts, hundreds of students lined up to vote, with several buses parked outside. "We came to elect President Bashar al-Assad ... without him Syria would not be Syria," Amal, a nursing student, said. Assad's rule has been defined by a decade-long war that erupted after peaceful protests against his authoritarian rule in 2011. "All people reject the rule of the son of Hafez," read graffiti scribbled across several towns in southern Syria, referring to Assad's father.

Source: CBC News May 26, 2021 06:45 UTC