As President Bashar al-Assad marks 20 years in power, Syria plans to hold parliamentary elections across the Assad government-controlled areas on Sunday.
These elections are the third since the start of the 2011 protests and continuing civil war.
Businessmen under recently-imposed United States sanctions and over 2,000 candidates are running for the elections.
Although the elections were originally designated to be held in April, they were postponed twice because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The elections will face a boycott from opposition groups traditionally tolerated by the government.
Observers state the elections lack credibility as the majority of candidates running belong to either al-Assad’s Baath Party or are loyal to his regime.
A senior consulting fellow at Chatham House and co-founder of the Syrian Centre for Policy Research, Zaki Mehchy, said, “The majority of Syrians believe the election is only a process controlled by the regime to represent itself as a legitimate authority in Syria”.
“The international community and political opposition groups will not recognize this parliament as a legitimate one,” he added.
“A new constitution can be only approved by a new parliament based on a transparent election in which refugees and Syrians outside the country have the right to vote,” Mehchy further explained.
The parliamentary elections are going to be held amid a continuing war and deep economic woes.