Last update - 00:00 29/05/2007
Assad wins 97.6% of vote en route to re-election victory
By Reuters
Syrian President Bashar Assad won 97.62 percent of the vote in a referendum that confirmed him for a second 7-year term, Interior Minister Bassam Abdel Majeed said on Tuesday.
"This great consensus shows the political maturity of Syria and the brilliance of our democracy and multi-party system," Majeed told reporters.
"There has been some repetition of votes but we caught them by reviewing the voting lists," Majeed said in response to a question about the possibility of vote-tampering.
Assad was the only candidate allowed to run in Sunday's referendum, which had been widely regarded as a formality and boycotted by the opposition.
The 41-year-old president won 97.29 percent of the vote when he succeeded his late father, Hafez al-Assad, seven years ago.
Bashar controls the ruling Baath Party, which took power in a coup in 1963, banned the opposition and imposed emergency law.
Parties attached to the Baath are the only other political groups allowed to exist legally.