Ruling Baath party wins Syria parliamentary elections

Syria's ruling Baath party and its allies have won a majority in parliamentary elections, results announced by the electoral commission showed, guaranteeing to renew the ruling party's and regime leader's hegemony.

Regime leader Bashar al Assad's party and allies took 177 seats out of 250 in Sunday's polls, the third such elections since the start of the war nine years ago.

Turnout stood at 33 percent, commission head Samer Zamreeq said on Tuesday, down from 57 percent in 2016.

Hussam Qatirji, a businessman under sanctions from the European Union, retained his seat.

Counting delayed by reruns

Earlier, vote counting got delayed after reruns in five polling stations delayed the results of the polls.

The reruns were held on Monday in four polling centres in Aleppo province and one in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the regime-run SANA news agency said.

The fresh polling was ordered by the electoral commission after suspected discrepancies were reported between the number of cast ballots and the number of registered voters.

READ MORE: Syrians vote for new parliament amid war and economic crisis

Such reruns are not uncommon in Syria, where results took four days to be released in the previous legislative polls held in 2016.

The election comes at a critical phase for the regime, which has reconquered much of the territory lost at the beginning of the country's war but faces its hardest economic challenges yet.

The battered economy is sinking deeper into trouble, hit also by a financial meltdown in neighbouring Lebanon that choked off dollars and the toughest US sanctions yet imposed last month.

More than 7,000 polling stations opened across regime-held parts of Syria, including for the first time in former opposition strongholds, in the third such polls since the war started nine years ago that has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country's population.

Millions ineligible amid war

The millions of Syrians who fled the conflict were not eligible to vote.

Several lists were allowed to run across the country but, without any real opposition.

Assad's opponents denounced the vote as a farce, nearly a decade into a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and made millions refugees.

Also on Tuesday, Turkey's President Erdogan questioned the polls saying, "What kind of an election is that? Where are those countries who utter the word democracy over and over again, where is the UN?"

"Do they now articulate a single word and ask what is going on in Syria? The citizens have no choice, they had to go and vote for one man. Now they will declare a so called victory and celebrate."

Coronavirus-hit polls

The elections were twice postponed from April due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has infected 522 people and killed 29 in regime-held areas, according to official figures.

Portraits of the contenders have been displayed across the capital for weeks, with the 1,658 candidates, including several prominent businessmen.

Many candidates are running on pledges to tackle sharp inflation and improve infrastructure ravaged by the conflict.

The next presidential polls are expected in 2021, and potential candidates will need the written approval of at least 35 members of parliament.