A presidential referendum was held in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

on 10 July 2000, following the death of President

Hafez al-Assad Hafez al-Assad ', , (, 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian statesman and military officer who served as President of Syria from taking power in 1971 until his death in 2000. He was also Prime Minister of Syria from 1970 to 1 ...

. The candidate, chosen by the parliament, was his son,

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

, with voters then asked to approve or reject his candidacy. A reported 99.7% of voters voted in favour, with a turnout of 94.6%.

Background

After the death of President Hafez al-Assad on June 10, the Syrian parliament voted to amend the Constitution to lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 40 to 34, Bashar al-Assad's age at the time.

Results

References

Presidential Presidential elections in Syria Single-candidate elections {{Syria-election-stub