Syria unrest: Local elections held despite fighting
The BBC's Jonathan Head says turnout is expected to be very low
Syria is holding local elections despite continuing violence between security and opposition forces.
Authorities said the vote would be freer than in previous years, but the opposition has called for a boycott and launched a general strike.
Turnout is expected to be very low. Correspondents say many Syrian voters will not risk going to the polls.
Fighting is said to be continuing in several cities, with at least 20 people reported killed on Monday.
The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), a network of opposition activists, said the deaths had occurred in Idlib in the north, Homs and Hama further south, and in a suburb of the capital, Damascus.
The group said four women and two children were among the dead.
Fierce fighting is also reportedly continuing in the southern province of Deraa.
On Sunday, activists said up to 18 people had been killed across the country - including 11 in Homs and Hama.
“Start Quote
End Quote Homs residentI didn't even know an election was taking place”
The UN estimates that more than 4,000 people have died in the nine-month uprising, including 307 children.
The Syrian government says it is fighting armed groups. Many army defectors have joined the opposition in recent months.
Reports from Syria are difficult to verify as foreign journalists are unable to move around the country freely.
War zoneThe Syrian state news agency reports people flocking to polling stations.
But in opposition strongholds activists say there are few signs that an election is even happening, and almost no-one is voting, reports the BBC's Jonathan Head in neighbouring Turkey.
Analysis
These elections, notionally on paper, are freer than previous ones and a good turnout - if the authorities could demonstrate one - would show that people still believed in the system.
But in the areas where the opposition is strong, like Deraa, Idlib and probably several other towns as well in the north and north-east, turnout is thought to be very low - probably in places like Homs almost non-existent.
It's not even really possible for people to go out and vote if they want to, at least not in large areas of cities like Homs, so we won't have any numbers.
But the country is essentially divided between those areas where some people will go and vote even though turnout may be low, and areas where the election is largely irrelevant because of the violence that goes on.
In these places shops remain shut on the second day of an indefinite general strike called by the opposition, reports say.
The authorities say Monday's polls are part of reforms being introduced in response to the protests.
"The new election law contains the necessary guarantees for a democratic, transparent and honest election," the head of the elections committee, Khalaf al-Ezzawi, told state media.
About 43,000 candidates are competing for more than 17,000 seats in local councils across Syria.
Zeina, a voter in Damascus, told AFP news agency: "I voted because we want to contribute to the reforms " pledged by President Bashar al-Assad.
But our correspondent says the vote means little in much of the country, where going out to cast a ballot can be too dangerous.
He says Homs - Syria's third-largest city - resembles a war zone, with gun battles occurring every day between army units and lightly armed opposition forces.
A resident of the city told the Arabic news channel al-Jazeera: "I didn't even know an election was taking place.
"The people of Homs have removed every picture of Bashar al-Assad from the streets, so don't expect to see pictures of candidates who are no more than stooges of the regime."
Foreign pressureThe opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) has warned of an impending final assault on Homs by security forces.
It also said that the general strike launched on Sunday was being widely observed in 12 provinces.
President Assad is under international pressure to end the continuing crackdown on anti-government protesters.
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay is due to brief the Security Council on the situation in Syria later on Monday.
On Saturday, the Arab League is due to discuss Damascus's conditional acceptance of the league's plan to send in monitors to assess the violence.
Last month the league suspended Syria's membership in protest at the continuing crackdown and also imposed economic sanctions.
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