The Syrian parliament says the country is scheduled to hold elections next month.
Syria has been I war for the last 10 years, a conflict that has led to around 400,000 deaths and displaced half of the country’s population according to BCC.
This is the second presidential election taking place in the course of the country’s civil war.
The 2014 election in which President Assad won 92% of the votes, was criticized as undemocratic by Syrian Opposition, the US and EU.
According to BBC, Syrian civil war began when prodemocracy protests were met with brutal suppression by Assad’s security forces. This later prompted opposition supporters to take up arms and ultimately the conflict spread though out the country. This situation proved conducive for the emergence of different factions of jihadist groups such as ISIS.
