Local Editor

Syrian officials announced that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been re-elected in a landslide victory in the presidential poll with 88.7 percent of the vote, securing him a third seven-year term in office on Wednesday.

Speaker of the Syrian parliament, Mohammad Lahham, announcing that al-Assad garnered 10,319,723 votes, representing almost 89 percent of the total votes.

"I declare the victory of Dr Bashar Hafez al-Assad as president of the Syrian Arab Republic with an absolute majority of votes cast in the election," Laham said in a televised address from the Syrian parliament.

Lahham added that the candidate Hassan al-Nouri gained 4.3% of the votes and that the candidate Maher al-Hajjar obtained 3.2% of the votes.

Furthemore, Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Faysal Mokdad stressed that the presidential elections sent "a harsh blow to all those who doubted the capability of the Syrian people to face the terrorist attack waged against Syria for over three years."

In an interview with al-Mayadeen, Mokdad said these elections "are legitimate because they reflect the respect of the Syrian Arab Republic towards its constitution and legal commitments, and they are much better than the western countries' elections which are based on propaganda and money from the Persian Gulf [Arab] states."

Shortly after the election results were announced, people took to streets in the different Syrian and Lebanese cities, celebrating al-Assad's win and chanting, "God bless Bashar."

In response to al-Assad's victory, CBS reported US Secretary of State John Kerry as sharply attacking the Syrian election, calling it "a great big zero," despite the great turnout of votes.