Presidential elections began Tuesday in Syria in what is considered a farce to reassert President Bashar al-Assad's ultimate power.

Assad is all but guaranteed to win the vote, which Western powers and opposition groups believe is fixed to ensure his re-election, CNN reported.

Syria, which has has been torn apart by a bloody civil war for three years, has had similarly rigged elections. Assad came to power 14 years ago after running unopposed in the election and securing 99 percent of the vote. He won again seven years later with an unrealistically large margin.

Assad's father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria in a similarly authoritarian manner for 29 years prior to his death in 2000.

While the government claims the elections are being held under the new constitution and shows progress, analysts say their main purpose is to send a bold message to Assad's opponents.

"It's a coronation of Assad, it's a celebration of his ability to survive the violent storm and basically go on the offensive," said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.

While there are two little-known candidates running against Assad -- Hassan al-Nouri, a businessman and former government minister, and Maher Hajjar, a lawyer -- they do not pose much of a challenge to the Assad dictatorship. Analysts say running opposition candidates is simply a strategy to make the election appear democratic.

Polling stations are only open in areas controlled by the Assad regime.

Western nations have openly condemned the elections with the United States saying the Assad regime has made it "difficult if not impossible to have a fair and free election in Syria." The British Foreign Office has called the vote a "grotesque parody of democracy."

The election, which U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Syria not to hold, is going forward despite a civil war that has killed around 150,000 people and displaced around 6.5 million Syrians within the country. Close to 3 million have also fled the country to escape the daily violence.

While many areas are still under Assad's control, rebels have gained hold of areas in the north and the east. Many people will likely not vote out of fear of rebel violence.

While Syrians cast ballots in the government-controlled regions Tuesday, warplanes bombed anti-government neighborhoods, CNN reported.

Warplane shelling killed at least two people in the western city of Rastan, and warplanes dropped at least 20 barrels of crude explosives over Daraya, a suburb of Damascus.

The Local Coordination Committee of Syria said that 28 people, including three children, were killed during the voting.

Rebel fighting against Assad is not unified, adding to the chaos in the fractured country. Rebel factions are fighting with jihadis who have come to Syria in attempts to establish Islamic rule in the state.

Peace negotiations in the United Nations did not quell the fighting between rebels and the Assad regime.

Some citizens in the commercial capital of Aleppo protested the election by placing mock ballots into a box to strip Assad of his citizenship.

Despite most nations considering the election a sham, Syria's official election organization said there was a high voter turnout, which prompted the Higher Judicial Committee for Elections to extend voting for five hours.

The United Nations warns that the elections will most likely worsen the situation in the country.

If Assad wins, as it is strongly predicted he will, it will lessen the prospects of him stepping down from power.

Kofi Annan, the United Nations peace envoy to Syria, also said that torture in Syria is worsening and that the government is still using heavy weapons.

According to The Guardian, the Red Cross reported that 1.5 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid, and activists at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 800 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the "cease-fire" began, April 25.

While a number Middle Eastern nations have held democratic elections, many have simply created an appearance of reform to placate Western critics.

The 2010 election in Egypt was also considered a charade and was one of the factors that triggered the 2011 protests. Election results showed a surge in the ruling party -- which was unpopular -- from 73 percent to 86.4 percent. Observers of the election said there was "breathtaking" fraud.

Election monitors from the U.S. and E.U. will not be present to monitor the Syrian elections, but observers from other countries will be present to monitor voting and results.