Syria parliamentary elections face boycott as peace talks begin

With over half of the country's population displaced, amid an escalation of fighting between an array of armed groups across the country, the elections faced boycott from Syrian opposition groups who saw them as an attempt by Assad to legitimise his control over the country.

Around 7,200 polling stations opened at 7:00 am [0400 GMT] in government-held areas – about a third of the country's territory where around 60 percent of the population lives.

They will remain open for 12 hours unless the electoral commission decides to extend the deadline.

Assad's Baath party, which has ruled Syria for over half a century, is expected to extend its dominance of parliament.

The presidency published photos of a smiling Assad and his wife Asma casting their ballots in Damascus and speaking to volunteers at the polling station.

The High Negotiations Committee [HNC], Syria's main opposition body involved in the Geneva talks, has branded the election as "illegitimate".

The HNC denounced the process saying it contributed to an unfavourable climate for negations amid fierce fighting that threatens an increasingly tenuous US-Russia-brokered ceasefire.

'Facade of democracy'

The elections conducted by Assad's government were criticised for being out of line with a UN Security Council resolution, which called for elections to be held after an 18-month transitional process.

The Assad government's decision to hold elections in the war-divided country shows "how divorced it is from reality," the British government said in a statement on Wednesday.

Elections cannot buy back legitimacy by putting up a "flimsy facade of democracy," the statement added.

But Russia, a crucial ally of Assad's government, said that the elections were important to prevent a "vacuum of power" in Syria.

"The peace talks in Geneva may lead to an agreement on the country's new constitution and subsequently lead to new elections," Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The Assad government's decision to hold elections in the war-divided country shows how divorced it is from reality - British government

The election is the second ballot since the beginning of the war in 2011 and 11,341 candidates initially sought to run for the 250 seats in parliament.

About 3,500 candidates remain in the race, after the rest withdrew "saying they had no chance of winning", Hisham al-Shaar, the head of the Supreme Judicial Elections Committee, said.

Walls across the capital Damascus were covered with campaign posters.

From the top of one of the city's tallest buildings a banner of the Baath party proclaimed: The elections of resistance.

Outside a polling station at the Damascus governor's headquarters in the eastern neighbourhood of Yusef al-Azmeh, representatives of various candidates distributed leaflets to potential voters.

But Mayssoun, 45, said she will not vote.

"Most of these candidates are rich men who live abroad and are just feeding us nonsense," she said.

The controversial polls come at a tense time with a surge in violence in recent days threatening a fragile six-week ceasefire.

The controversial polls come at a tense time with a surge in violence in recent days threatening a fragile six-week ceasefire

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will try again to reach a consensus at the talks on ending a war that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced half the population.

The negotiations are aimed at agreeing a roadmap to peace, including forming a transitional government followed by general elections.