Activists to protest Assad’s elections front of EU Parliament, Brussels

Syrian community activists in Belgium have called for a mass rally in front of European Parliament on Tuesday in protest against Assad’s presidential elections.

Free Syrian Community Coordination in Belgium said in statement, obtained by Zaman Alwasl, the two-hour rally will take place in Luxembourg Square in Brussels, calling on all Syria’s revolution activists and supporters in Belgium to participate.

Syrian regime holds an election Tuesday in the middle of its bloody civil war — a vote that Bashar Assad is expected to win easily and that critics have denounced as a sham.

The coordination said the blood election is no more than ‘a skit’.

Assad's re-election to another seven-year term would show the tenacity of a ruler who had only a tenuous grip on power just over a year ago. In the past 12 months, his troops have clawed back to regain lost ground and significantly strengthen his position, giving him little reason to seek a political compromise in a conflict that has killed more than 160,000 people, according to AP. 

The Interior Ministry said there were 15.8 million eligible voters, both inside and outside Syria. It added that 9,600 voting centers have been set up around the country.

Polling stations are scheduled to open on Tuesday at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT, midnight EDT Monday) and close 12 hours later. The ministry said voting could be extended for five hours if there is a big turnout, according to AP.

The Syrian opposition and its Western allies have dismissed the vote as a farce, questioning the credibility of an election taking place during a raging civil war. Much of northern and eastern Syria is in rebel hands, and polling will only be done in government-controlled areas.

Ahmad al-Jarba, the leader of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, described the vote as "theater written with the blood of Syrians." He urged his countrymen to stay home, alleging that Assad was planning to bomb and shell voting centers in order to blame the opposition. (With AP)