BEIRUT: Syrian expats streamed to their embassy in Beirut on Wednesday to vote in a controversial presidential election as war raged at home and bombs killed more than 40 people in the city of Aleppo.

With expats around the world voting in advance of the June 3 election, Beirut’s Yarzeh district was festooned with Syrian flags and portraits of President Bashar al-Assad, who is expected to cruise to victory.

An estimated three million Syrians live abroad, including peacetime residents and refugees, but only about 200,000 were able to vote on Wednesday, at 38 embassies, a foreign ministry source said in Damascus.

Pro-regime daily Al-Watan said that is “a relatively acceptable figure, if we bear in mind the fact that France, Germany and Belgium have banned Syrian citizens” from voting, along with the United Arab Emirates.

The ministry says 40,000 citizens in Lebanon, which hosts more than a million refugees fleeing the violence, are on the electoral register.

Damascus has barred refugees who left Syria through unofficial crossings from taking part in the election.

By midday, all the entrances to the Lebanese capital were blocked, causing long tailbacks, as thousands of Syrians descended on the embassy, mostly by foot.

The army set up checkpoints around the embassy to head off any disturbances, with the country’s Syrian community sharply divided into pro- and anti-Assad camps. Lion of the Arabs: There was little sign of any opposition voters in the long queues outside the mission.

“The lion of the Arabs,” and “With our soul, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you,” read slogans on Assad’s portraits.

“Where are the ‘Friends of Syria’? If only they would come and see this picture” of thousands taking part in the election, said one young man, sitting on a bus waving the Syrian flag. Others made the V-for-victory sign.

Syria’s exiled opposition and its Western backers, who hold international meetings under a “Friends of Syria” umbrella, have ridiculed the June 3 vote as a “farce”.

The civil war raging since March 2011 has killed more than 160,000 people and forced nearly half the population to flee their homes.

More casualties were added to the figure on Wednesday, with news that air force raids on rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo had killed more than 40 people in 24 hours.—AFP

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2014