Syrian President Bashar Assad recently called a contested election and was reelected overwhelmingly, see the Associated Press story at Yahoo News. Another AP story has Secretary of State Kerry calling the vote "meaningless." Few in the U. S. are willing to admit liking Assad.
I won't defend the honesty of a vote in a country at war with itself, but I think Kerry is wrong, too. Given how well the Assad government has fared in the civil war, it is clear that many Syrians do support him. If not the 88+% by which he supposedly won, clearly a large number back the government against the rebels.
According to the CIA World Factbook, Syria is, by religion, 74% Sunni and 26% other (Shia, Alawi, Ismaili, Christian, and Druse). By ethnicity, Syria is 90% Arab, 10% Kurd and Armenian. Clearly all of the "other" faiths and the non-Arabs back the government and Assad.
The rebels are a Sunni Arab movement. If the rebels win, all who are not Sunni Arabs expect an apartheid state with themselves as second-class citizens. So they back Assad, even if they don't love him.
