Syrians vote in parliamentary elections

DAMASCUS, Syria – Syrians voted in parliamentary elections Monday that the government praised as a milestone in promised political reforms, but the opposition boycotted the polls and said they were designed to strengthen President Bashar Assad’s grip on power.

The fact the regime and the opposition are pushing such wildly divergent views is a sign of the chasm separating the two sides, more than a year into a conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people and raised fears of a regional conflagration.

There were scattered reports of violence Monday, including witness accounts that security forces launched deadly attacks on villages in central Syria where opposition supporters were refusing to vote. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

The election for the 250-member parliament is unlikely to change the trajectory of the revolt in Syria. Parliament is considered a rubber stamp in a country where the president holds the real power.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that for the government to go ahead with balloting in the current atmosphere in Syria “borders on ludicrous.”

“It is not really possible to hold credible elections in a climate where basic human rights are being denied to the citizens and the government is continuing to carry out daily assaults on its own citizens,” he said.

Still, the elections are the first under a new constitution, adopted three months ago, that allows political parties to compete with Assad’s ruling Baath Party. The new constitution also limits the president to two seven-year terms.

As the voting got under way, regime forces stormed several poor farming villages in central Syria where residents were boycotting the elections, shooting randomly and torching homes, two witnesses said. One resident who asked to be identified only by his first name, Zakariya, for fear of retribution, said at least four people in his village of Qabr Fidda were killed – including a man and his two daughters, who were burned alive.