DAMASCUS, Syria — Against a backdrop of civil war, tens of thousands of Syrians voted in government-controlled cities and towns on Tuesday to give President Bashar Assad a new seven-year mandate, with some even marking the ballots with their own blood.
The carefully choreographed election was ignored and even mocked in opposition-held areas of Syria where fighting persisted, with some rebels derisively dropping their shoes in a phony ballot box in a show of disgust. Western leaders also have called the vote a sham.
An expected victory by Assad, who voted at a school in a Damascus suburb, is likely to bolster him at home and provide further evidence that he has no intention of relinquishing power, making a protracted conflict the likely outcome in fighting that already has lasted three years and killed more than 160,000.
Government warplanes and helicopters pounded the rebellious Damascus suburb of Daraya, the southern city of Daraa and the nearby town of Nawa, as well as opposition-held districts of the divided northern city of Aleppo.
