Syria kicks off presidential election

A man casts his vote at Dama Rose hotel during the presidential election in Damascus, June 3, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

Meanwhile, Syria's state-run news agency SANA said delegations of expat Syrians are arriving in Syria to participate in the vote. Those expats could not cast their ballots during the overseas polling in late May because Syrian embassies in their living countries were banned to hold the voting.

Aside from the Syrians, parliamentarian delegations from "friendly countries" -- Iran, Russia, Brazil, and Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- have also started to arrive to observe the voting at the invitation of the Syrian parliament, according to SANA.

The three presidential candidates -- incumbent President al-Assad, former minister Hassan al-Nouri and lawmaker Maher Hajjar -- have put forth their electoral platforms that carry nearly the same political headlines with different visions on how to rescue the collapsed economy.

The election is the first held in half a century. Previously, there were only referendums to support Assad or his late father Hafez al-Assad who was in office from 1971 to 2000.

In 2007, the junior Assad won another seven-year term of office with 97 percent of the vote in a nationwide referendum on his leadership, in which he was the only candidate.

Tuesday's poll, which lasts from 7 am to 7 pm local time, takes place at roughly all governmental establishments and ministries and also in the capital's hotels and booths set up by the government in every alley in Damascus to facilitate the voting.

In al-Mazzeh Sheikh Sa'ad neighborhood alone, at least 20 polling stations and booths are open to receive voters.