After a day of maneuvering and voting on Monday that lasted into early Tuesday, he won 35 votes, just three more than Assad Mustafa, a former agricultural minister under Mr. Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad.
"We are moving forward, the situation is practically getting better, but the victory needs more time," Assad said.
Murhaf Jouejati, professor of Middle East studies at the National Defence University in Washington DC, said: "The more the Assad regime is using violence, the more the protests are growing".
Even more crucially, Assad is backed by 40% of the population, his ruling Shia-aligned Alawites fearful of being oppressed by the Sunni majority along with Kurds, Christians and other minorities.
Saleh, like Gaddafi and more recently Assad, warned that in "the storm of recent events" in the Arab world, al-Qaida stands to gain from chaos in his country.
Two more men, Assad Hussain, 32, and Zeeshan Ahmed, were each jailed for seven years for two counts of sexual activity with a child.
Unfortunately, the longer the protests continue the more likely Assad will provoke grim sectarian strife to save itself, a fear the White House has expressed on numerous occasions.
What's more, anti-Assad elements should be careful what they wish for.
While his cartoons have mocked Assad more and more directly since the protests began in March 2011, Mr Ferzat feels he has always been at the forefront of the struggle for freedom of expression.
"It is all about giving Assad more time to kill more people.
