The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group elected a former political prisoner Saturday, July, 6 as its new president, filling a post that has been vacant for months due to divisions among President Bashar Assad’s opponents, The Associated Press reports.

Inside Syria, government troops advanced into rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs, pushing into a heavily contested neighborhood after pummeling it with artillery that drove out opposition fighters, an activist said Saturday.

The Syrian National Coalition said in a statement that Ahmad al-Jarba received 55 votes from the 114-member council in the poll that took place in the Turkish city of Istanbul, where many Syrian opposition figures are based.

Al-Jarba is from the northeastern province of Hassakeh, and is a member of the powerful Shammar tribe that extends into Iraq.

The opposition coalition also elected three vice presidents including Mohammed Farouk Taifour, a senior official with Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood. The other two vice presidents are Salem al-Mislit and prominent opposition figure Suhair Atassi. Badr Jamous was voted in as the SNC’s secretary general.