Syrian opposition urges election boycott

Syrian opposition urges election boycott: BEIRUT (AP) � Syrian opposition leaders on Sunday dismissed upcoming parliamentary elections as a cynical attempt by President Bashar Assad to hold on to power and urged voters to stay away. The election of a 250-seat parliament comes three months after the adoption of a new constitution that allows the formation of political parties to compete with the ruling Baath party. A U.N.-brokered truce last month has failed to halt a brutal regime crackdown on the 14-month-old uprising against Assad despite the presence of foreign observers sent to monitor compliance. Underscoring the continued violence, U.N. observers visited Zabadani and Dael on Sunday, and regime forces fired randomly into Dael after they left, injuring three people, Adel said. Since the outbreak of Syria's popular revolt in March 2011, the regime has made a series of gestures to try to allay the crisis, but also kept up its attacks on centers of rebellion. Earlier this week, the state-run news agency SANA reported that a pro-regime candidate, Abdul-Hamid al-Taha, was gunned down in the southern city of Daraa in an attack it blamed on "armed terrorists," the term the regime generally uses for opponents. U.N. officials hope the deployment of more observers will gradually calm the situation, and Annan's spokesman says the peace plan remains on track.