Western UN Security Council members led by the United States, France and Britain, have rejected the outcome of Syria’s May 26 presidential election in advance.

French ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Riviere said: “France will not recognize any validity to the elections planned by the regime at the end of May,” AFP reported.

US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said during a monthly session of the Security Council on Syria that “the failure to enact a new constitution is proof positive that the so-called election on May 26 will be a sham,”

Thomas-Greenfield added that President Bashar al-Assad “must take steps to enable the participation of refugees, internally displaced persons, and the diaspora in any Syrian elections. Until then, we will not be fooled.”

British diplomat Sonia Farrey said: “Elections that take place in the absence of a safe and neutral environment, in an ongoing climate of fear, when millions of Syrians depend on humanitarian aid... do not confer political legitimacy, but instead demonstrate disregard for the Syrian people.”

Estonia and other members of the European Union believe a Syrian election must be held under the aegis of the UN and include the opposition and its diaspora, as Estonian ambassador Sven Jurgenson suggested.
Russian diplomat Vassily Nebenzia, said it was “distressing” that some nations already rejected the results.

The May 26 presidential election comes two decades into Assad’s regime, and is the second to be held since the start of the war in 2011.