Syrians yesterday voted in an election expected to deliver an overwhelming victory for President Bashar al-Assad but which his opponents have dismissed as a charade in the midst of Syria’s devastating civil war.

Rebel fighters, the political opposition in exile, Western powers and Gulf Arabs say no credible vote can be held in a country where swathes of territory are outside state control and millions have been displaced by conflict.

State television showed long queues of people waiting to vote at polling stations in areas under state control, as well as crowds waving flags and portraits of the President. Assad, looking relaxed and wearing a dark blue suit and light blue tie, voted at a central Damascus polling station with his wife Asma.

The Syrians in a zone controlled by the Syrian government have a choice of Bashar or Bashar

For many Syrians politics took second place to the overriding yearning for stability after three years of war which have killed more than 160,000 people.

“We hope for security and stability,” said Hussam al-Din al Aws, an Arabic teacher who was the first person to vote at a polling station at a Damascus secondary school. Asked who would win, he responded: “God willing, President Bashar al-Assad.”

Islamist insurgents battling to overthrow the 48-year-old President, who has ruled Syria since succeeding his father 14 years ago, dismissed the vote as “illegitimate”.

But the Islamic Front pledged not to target polling stations “because we decided not to involve civilians in the conflict”. It urged other rebels to do the same.

Damascus residents said mortar shells struck residential areas in the capital yesterday, most likely fired from rebel suburbs. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Assad is running against two relatively unknown challengers who were approved by a Parliament packed with his supporters, the first time in half a century that Syrians have been offered a choice of candidates.

But neither of Assad’s rivals, former minister Hassan al-Nouri or parliamentarian Maher Hajjar, enjoys much support.

“It’s a tragic farce,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. “The Syrians in a zone controlled by the Syrian government have a choice of Bashar or Bashar. This man has been described by the UN Secretary General as a criminal,” he told France 2 television.

But for many Syrians exhausted by war, particularly the minority Alawite, Christian and Druze communities, the Alawite president offers a bulwark against radical Sunni Muslim insurgents and the promise – however remote – of some form of stability.