Syria satisfied with parliamentary elections despite Western cynicism

DAMASCUS, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian government said Monday it was satisfied with a "remarkable" turnout in its "smoothly" parliamentary elections held on Monday despite the U.S. cynicism.

Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Sha'ar said Monday that the parliamentary elections were held smoothly with a "remarkable" turnout.

"The voting is moving normally... There is no problem so far except for some matters that usually happen in any electoral climate," he was quoted by the state-run SANA news agency as saying.

Meanwhile, Khalaf al-Azawi, head of the higher committee for elections, said there was no complaint so far about the voting process.

According to SANA's earlier reports, the elections were supervised by an independent judicial committee and were covered by more than 200 Arab and foreign media outlets, in addition to more than 100 intellectuals and lawmen from foreign countries to monitor the elections.

However, the United States on Monday dismissed the election as "ludicrous," saying credible elections are not possible when the country is beset by continuing violence.

Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon stressed Monday that the priority for the moment is to deploy observers to Syria as soon as possible, urging "a cessation of violence in all its forms and action to implement (the six-point peace plan)."

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank in Washington, Ban called the Arab nation "the hottest spot, the hottest issue and most serious and gravest of concerns of the international community."

"More than 9,000 people have been killed. The killing (has) lasted 14 months... This is a totally unacceptable and intolerable situation," he said.

Ban said the number of observers will be increased by more than 130 by Thursday, a sharp rise from the current 60.

"And by the middle of this month we'll be able to deploy maybe 230 or more than that. Our target is to deploy 300 mandated supervision mission as soon as possible, within this month," he said.