Polls in Syria's presidential election closed on Wednesday (May 26) at midnight (21:00 GMT) after authorities extended voting by five hours due to the high turnout.
The government said the election showed Syria was functioning normally despite the decade-old conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven 11 million people - about half the population - from their homes.
In the southern city of Deraa, cradle of the uprising against Assad in 2011 and an opposition redoubt until rebels there surrendered three years ago, local leaders called for a strike.
Dismissed as fraudulent by his enemies, Wednesday's vote is set to deliver Assad seven more years in power and lengthen his family's rule to nearly six decades. His father Hafez al-Assad led Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000.
The opposition boycotted the vote and said Assad's presidential rivals were deliberately low-key: former deputy cabinet minister Abdallah Saloum Abdallah and Mahmoud Ahmed Marei, head of a small, officially sanctioned opposition party.
The election went ahead despite a U.N.-led peace process that had called for voting under international supervision that would help pave the way for a new constitution and a political settlement.
REUTERS