Syria is holding parliamentary elections across government-controlled areas of the country on Sunday, Al Jazeera reports.
More than 2,000 candidates, including businessmen under recently imposed US sanctions, are running in the legislative election - the third since the start of civil war.
The elections, originally scheduled for April, have been postponed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the last vote in 2016, al-Assad's Baath Party and its allies took 200 of the 250-seat parliament while the remaining posts went to independent candidates.
More than 7,000 polling stations have been set up across about 70 percent of the country.
Syrians living abroad, including millions of refugees forced to leave their homes because of fighting, will not be taking part in the election.
