The regime of Bashar Assad plans to hold parliamentary elections May 7. The Syrian president announced in March the intention to hold the country’s first multi-party elections — removing a clause in the constitution that enshrined the Ba’ath party as “leader of the state and society” and allowing new political parties. The Guardian says nine new parties have since been registered under Syria’s still restrictive political parties law. The polls come amid continuing violence that has claimed some 9,000 lives this year and has been widely derided by opposition activists and Western powers. They argue it is impossible for anybody but the Ba’ath Party to win. As the Financial Times recently reported: “Opponents of Mr. Assad and some independent observers see the polls as at best an irrelevance and at worst a hollow sham aimed at reinforcing regime control rather than diluting it.”
Ballot Box Watch: Your Guide to May Elections
Global Spin previews the pick of this month's exercises in democracy