DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2021) Syria's presidential elections served to indicate that Damascus has liberated a large chunk of the country's territory, a trend that it intends to continue in the future by liberating Syrian territories still under foreign occupation, the Syrian Presidency's Special Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"It was widely felt that President Assad's trip to vote in Douma sent a message to the whole world that we have freed most parts of our country from the terrorism that they had sent, armed and financed, and that we would liberate the remaining parts from the Turkish, American and Israeli occupation," Shaaban said.
Syria's government has made significant progress in reclaiming its territories with the assistance of Russia and Iran, having increased the territories under its control by a factor of three since the country's previous presidential elections in 2014, a fact that was accentuated by President Assad's visit to the previously rebel-held city of Douma.
The Syrian president's visit to Douma marked his first official visit to the city since it came under government control in 2018, with Assad timing his visit with the elections in order to cast his vote at the local polling station, marking a milestone in the country's political history.
Contested by three candidates including the country's current President Bashar Al Assad, domestic oppositionary Mahmoud Ahmad Marei, and the former Minister of State for Parliamentary affairs Abdullah Salloum Abdullah, Syria's presidential elections concluded on Wednesday night, with voting extended till midnight to account for the large number of voters reportedly flocking to balloting stations across the country.
