DAMASCUS, July 21 (CGTN) - The results of the Syrian parliamentary elections were released on Tuesday, showing a 33.17 percent participation rate in the voting process, according to the state news agency SANA.
In a widely expected victory in a vote labelled a "farce" by the exiled opposition, President Bashar al-Assad's party and allied candidates on the "National Unity" list took 177 seats out of 250 in Sunday's polls.
The voting took place on Sunday and the vote counting was delayed on Monday due to reruns in some polling stations in northern and eastern Syria as a result of some issues in the voting process.
Started in the early morning on Sunday, a total of 7,277 polling stations opened across the government-controlled areas for the one-day elections as voters have the chance to vote on 1,656 candidates for the 250-seat parliament.
The new thing this year is the number of young candidates that have not been noticed in the previous elections.
This year, the government also allocated polling stations for Syrians who are originally from rebel-held areas and other places out of the government control but reside in government-controlled areas.
It is worth noting that the Syrian government is now in control of around 70 percent of the Syrian territory with ultra-radical rebels in control of Idlib in northwestern Syria and the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) controlling areas in northeastern Syria.
The Syrian opposition in exile slammed the parliamentary elections and the Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria didn't observe the elections and said it has nothing to do with it.