DAMASCUS, Syria - The government said Thursday that Syria’s ruling coalition took an overwhelming majority of seats in parliamentary elections that were boycotted by the opposition as a farce.

The rubber-stamp legislature is likely to consolidate the rule of President Bashar Assad, who is expected to seek its nomination to run for a second seven-year term in July. There had been no doubt about the outcome, because the constitution guarantees the Baath Party and its allies a two-thirds majority in the parliament.

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