Syrian election unlikely to reduce tensions

Even though more than 50 percent of eligible Syrian voters turned out to vote in the country's recent parliamentary election, that will do little to ease tensions in the country, experts said.

Khalaf al-Azzawi, chairman of the Syrian Higher Committee for Elections, announced on Tuesday that 51.26 percent of the 10,118,519 Syrians who are eligible to vote cast ballots in the election.

Among those elected to the 250 seats in the country's parliament, 30 are women, he added.

Zhang Xiaodong, an expert on Middle East studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the turnout suggests that a divide has formed among ordinary Syrians and that Damascus will face great difficulties in uniting the people it governs.

The country is now going through great changes. Even so, people exhibited "apathy" toward the election, he said, saying some had boycotted the vote amid fighting with government security forces.

He said President Bashar al-Assad will face difficulties if nearly half of the Syrian population do not accept his authority or the results of the parliamentary election.

Even so, the election posed no threat to Assad's Baath Party, which won a majority of the seats in the country's parliament.

Last week, the United States said a credible election could not take place in a country beset by violence.

"What Syria now needs most is stability and international recognition for its the government," he said. "On these things at least, I think the vote will have a small effect."

Syrian authorities said 7,195 candidates from 12 political parties competed in the election, which was held in accordance with a constitution that ends the Baath Party's monopoly on power. Occurring amidst violence, it was the first election involving several parties to take place in the country in five decades.

Meanwhile, the election indicated that Damascus is trying to proceed with reforms demanded by the Syrian people, said Zhang Xiaodong, and could thus help to quell the current unrest, which began in March 2011.

In the election, Assad gave a certain amount space to the various political factions in the country, a step that helped to foster a national political dialogue, Zhang said.

"It was progress compared with what some other Arab countries have done."