War-torn Syria To Hold Presidential Vote On May 26 By Maher AL MOUNES with Rouba EL HUSSEINI in Beirut 04/18/21 AT 10:21 AM Syria will hold a presidential election on May 26 that is expected to keep Bashar al-Assad in power in the country devastated by a decade of civil war. It will be the second vote since the conflict erupted in March 2011, killing at least 388,000 people since and displacing half the population, with no political solution in sight. Western powers last month warned against a poll that would not be "fair or free", and Syrian opposition figure Nasr Hariri on Sunday denounced the forthcoming election as a "farce".