DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – After scoring a sweeping victory in the presidential election, incumbent Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the vote was ‘a slap in the face of enemies.’
Assad made the remarks in a televised speech after his election victory, where he said the vote constituted an “unprecedented challenge to enemies of the homeland,” and the United States and its allies which have denounced the election as “illegitimate.”
Hailing the Syrian people who voted in the election, Assad said they have re-defined the meaning of revolution, adding his re-election is “a great honor” to him.
A day earlier, Assad won his fourth seven-year term in the 2021 presidential race with 95.1 percent of the vote compared to 88.7 percent in the 2014 election.
The number of eligible voters inside and outside Syria was estimated at more than 18 million, 14 million of whom cast their votes in the election with a turnout rate of 78.64 percent.
President Assad also said the Syrian nation ‘redefined patriotism’ by voting in the country’s recent presidential election and turned the vote into a “real revolution” against foreign-backed terrorism and scheme-devising enemies.
“You have defined the revolution and brought back its brilliance after part of mercenaries...defamed its name,” Assad said, hailing the vote as “a revolution against terrorism, treason and moral deterioration.”
“You have turned the scales and changed the rules of the game and undoubtedly affirmed that those rules can be set and determined only here, and by our own hands and that there is no place for partners except for the brothers and friends,” Assad affirmed.
“I am confident that with this combatant spirit, we will be able to defeat all our enemies whatever the troubles have been tightened… this spirit is what we need for the next stage which is a stage of continuous work, resistance, and steadfastness in order to prove to our enemies once again that fighting against our people through their basic needs and livelihood would not affect, but increase their commitment to the homeland,” the Syrian leader stressed.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has extended its felicitations to Syria on the victory of President Assad, saying that the high voter turnout proved Syrians’ support for their leadership in the country’s fight against the Takfiri terrorism and their opposition to the partitioning of their country.
In a statement on Friday, Hezbollah offered its “warmest congratulations” to Assad and the “brotherly” Syrian people on the victory in the May 26 presidential election, describing the electoral process as “a large-scale political and popular referendum” which saw a high turnout.
“The Syrians have once again emphasized through the ballot boxes … their full commitment to national unity and their opposition to discrimination, sectarianism and division,” Hezbollah said, adding that the Syrians also affirmed their support for the policy which Syria has adopted throughout its modern history, including supporting the Palestinian cause, confronting the occupation and aggression, and rejecting Takfirism and terrorism.
“We hope that upcoming years will be a great opportunity for Syria to return to playing its natural and leading role globally and regionally,” it added, expressing hope that the Syrian areas which remain “under occupation and terrorism” would be liberated.