(3 Jun 2014) Election officials began counting votes in Syria's presidential election on Tuesday as polls closed in government-held areas.
State-run media reported that voting closed at midnight, and election officials began the process of checking the number of votes against lists of registered voters to ensure numbers matched.
President Bashar Assad faces two government-approved challengers in the race, Maher Hajjar and Hassan al-Nouri, both of whom were little known in Syria before declaring their candidacy for the country's top post in April.
Assad's win - all but a foregone conclusion - would give him a third seven-year term in office, tighten his hold on power, and likely further strengthen his determination to crush the insurgency against his rule.
The carefully choreographed election was ignored and even mocked in opposition-held areas of Syria where fighting persisted.
It was Syria's first multi-candidate presidential election in more than 40 years.
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