Syrian voters are choosing a new parliament Monday in the country's first multi-party elections.
Opposition activists are calling it a fake attempt by the president to hold on to power. Authorities are praising the vote as a major reform.
Those who have risen up against President Bashar al-Assad are boycotting the vote. The opposition-in-exile and countries demanding Assad step down have dismissed it as yet another attempt for the government to buy time. The government has thus far agreed to an Arab League peace plan that has failed to make progress, and signed on to a U.N. cease-fire observer effort in April that is only now getting under way.
The election is seen as a political concession to the popular uprising. Syrian election officials say 7,195 candidates - many from at least seven new political parties - are participating in the polls for the 250-seat assembly, ending the nearly 50-year monopoly on power by the Ba'ath party.
A new constitution allowed the creation of opposition parties to compete with the Ba'ath-led National Progressive Front after nearly a year of deadly protests.
A spokeswoman for Syria's main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Council, told VOA that the parliamentary elections are an "insult to democracy." Bassma Kodmani said the government is "killing [people] every day" in centers of the 14-month rebellion against Assad's autocratic rule. She said the only people who will vote in such an environment are those who are forced to do so.
Kodmani also dismissed the involvement of new political parties in the election, calling them "creations of the regime." She said Syria's opposition movement remains outside of any legal institutions and continues to take to the streets to make itself heard.
Syrian government and rebel forces have continued daily attacks on each other despite a U.N.-backed truce agreement that took effect last month. Opposition activists reported fighting between the two sides in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour Sunday and said at least five people were killed in clashes across the country.
A U.N. team deployed in Syria to monitor the truce said the number of observer personnel has risen to 70, with the contingent set to reach 300 by the end of May. The observers toured several towns around Damascus, meeting Syrian troops, inspecting military vehicles and talking to residents in Zabadani and Madaya.
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