Syria's Bashar Al Assad takes oath for a fourth term

Damascus - Assad took 95 per cent of the votes in the elections.

President Bashar Al Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term in war-ravaged Syria Saturday, after taking 95 per cent of the vote in a controversial election.

Assad was sworn in the presence of more than 600 guests, including ministers, businessmen, academics and journalists, organisers said.

The elections "have proven the strength of popular legitimacy that the people have conferred to the state," 55-year-old Assad said, in his inauguration speech.

The vote extending Assad's grip on power was the second since the start of a decade-long civil war that has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure.

With his campaign slogan, "Hope through work", Assad cast himself as the sole architect of a reconstruction phase for the troubled country.

• MENA