Campaigning in Syria's presidential vote begins

Campaigning for Syria's June 3 presidential vote, which is expected to return President Bashar Assad to office despite the country's brutal conflict, opened on Sunday. The vote will be Syria's first multi-candidate presidential election, but incumbent Assad, who is facing two other presidential hopefuls, is expected to easily win a third term in office. In Damascus, Assad's campaign was already well underway on Sunday. Throughout the city center, dozens of posters featuring the Syrian flag overlaid with the word "together" and Assad's signature were on display. Portraits of Assad were hung at a public garden near the commercial center of Salhieh along those of his late father Hafez Assad, and of chief ally Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon's Hizbullah. Hafez Assad ruled Syria with an iron grip from 1970 until death in 2000, when his son assumed office after a referendum. A recent constitutional amendment did away with the system of presidential referendums, but electoral rules prevented those who have lived abroad in the last decade from running, ruling out most of the opposition. Assad is running against two relatively unknown competitors -- Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah al-Nuri. Hajjar is from Syria's second city of Aleppo, which has been devastated by fighting that broke out there in 2012, and is an independent MP and former member of the communist party. Nuri is a Damascus businessman who was a member of the domestic opposition tolerated by Assad's government. In the capital's Sabaa Bahrat neighborhood, one billboard hung "by citizens of Syria" proclaims: "We won't close our eyes until we have said yes to the ophthalmologist," a reference to Assad, an eye specialist by training,. "We vote for you, 2014," it adds. Elsewhere, posters read "our Bashar, we will not accept a president other than you. We have chosen you, you have our loyalty." Assad's competitors have some representation too, with posters supporting Nuri seen on some Damascus streets. They call for "a battle against corruption" as well as "a free economy" and the "return of the middle class." Nuri's campaign reels have also aired on state television. But for the moment, Assad appears to dominate the campaign, with posters showing the smiling leader and the words "we love you" underneath. The elections will be held despite the fighting that has raged since an uprising began against Assad in March 2011. The conflict has killed more than 150,000 people, displaced nine million from their homes and left large parts of the country beyond the control of the government. Voting will only be held in areas under government control and refugees who left Syria through unofficial crossings are also barred from participating in the election.