Syrian Election Shows The Extent Of Assad's Power

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/ [login to see] /syria-presidential-election-2021-assad-fourth-term
It was a decision as symbolic as the Syrian presidential election itself.

On Wednesday morning, Syrians woke to local television footage of President Bashar Assad and the first lady, Asma Assad, casting their ballots. The pair were not in a loyalist stronghold but in Douma, the satellite town of Damascus whose residents proved some of the staunchest opponents to Syria's authoritarian regime.

In the early days of Syria's decade-long civil war, people from Douma formed some of the first armed groups against the regime. Civilians there also held mass protests, risking live bullets from government soldiers to call for an end to the regime.

They paid a heavy price. In 2013, the regime placed Douma and other satellite towns in these eastern suburbs of Damascus under a tight siege, blockading food, medical equipment and aid supplies. For five years, civilians survived on mostly scraps and some starved. The regime and its ally Russia hit the area with airstrikes and shellfire that rights groups say targeted homes, bakeries and hospitals.

A chemical weapons attack on Douma prompted then-President Donald Trump in 2017 to take the most concerted direct action of the war against the regime with airstrikes in government-held Syria.