[DAWN] NO one was holding their breath for the results of Syria's presidential election, which was always certain to confirm that Bashir al-Assad has been given a third seven-year term by a grateful, or frightened, people.Bleak jokes and cartoons have been circulating for weeks in the anti-Assad camp on the theme of barrel bombs serving as ballot boxes. In 2007, when he faced a referendum with no rivals, he won with a whopping 97.6 per cent of the vote. With two approved challengers giving this bizarre contest a veneer of competition, this time he achieved 88.7pc.
Still, it was never going to be easy for Assad to surpass the 96.1pc officially attained by Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the latest general to become president of Egypt on a reported turnout of 47.5pc that, if true, compares favourably with the 52pc who voted when the Moslem BrĂźderbund's Mohammed Morsi
...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the
One Man, One Vote, One Timeprinciple, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator...
narrowly beat the ancient regime candidate in 2012. Morsi may have been an unpopular failure, as his enemies say, but it bears repeating that he was still the country's only democratically elected president when he was tossed a year ago.