Assad wins Syria's presidential elections

Syria's incumbent President Bashar al-Assad has won a third seven-year term in office in the presidential elections that took place Tuesday, the Syrian parliament announced Wednesday.

A parliament speaker said that 1,319,723 people voted for Assad, which made about 88.7 percent of the votes.

Earlier on Wednesday, Syria's Supreme Constitutional Court said that 11,634,412 out of 15,845,575 eligible voters participated in the presidential elections -- placing the turnout rate at 73.42 percent.

The general election started at 7 a.m. Tuesday and was scheduled to end at 7 p.m. But the Supreme Judicial Committee, which was tasked with overseeing the electoral process, later announced to extend the voting for another five hours until midnight citing a "huge turnout".

It is the first multi-candidate presidential election in Syria's modern history, which has been dismissed by the exiled opposition and their Western backers as "farce."