Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
By the Syrian Observer, May , 14, 2024
Decree to Hold People’s Assembly Elections on July 15th
Source: AL-WATAN (Pro-government newspaper), May 13, 2024
On Saturday, President Bashar al-Assad issued Legislative Decree No. 99 of 2024, designating Monday, the fifteenth of July, as the election day for members of the People’s Assembly for the fourth legislative session.
The decree delineated the allocation of Assembly seats among the workers, farmers, and other sectors within the electoral districts. Its primary article established Monday, July 15th, 2024, as the election date for the Assembly’s fourth term.
Jihad Murad, the head of the Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections, affirmed that the acceptance of candidacy applications would commence the day after the decree’s publication in the Official Gazette, spanning a period of seven days. He emphasized adherence to legal and constitutional timelines in setting the election date.
In an exclusive statement to Al-Watan, Murad disclosed plans for establishing judicial subcommittees and nomination committees across governorates to receive candidacy applications promptly after the decree’s publication.
Regarding required documentation, Murad clarified that applicants must furnish their applications to the nomination committee along with all necessary paperwork. Per the General Elections Law, candidates must be Syrian Arab nationals for at least ten years by the application submission date, and at least 25 years old as of January 1, 2024. Additionally, candidates must possess full political and civil rights, exhibit proficiency in reading and writing, have no prior convictions for felonies, heinous misdemeanors, or breaches of public trust, and be registered voters in their respective electoral districts. They must also provide evidence of affiliation with their nominated sector.
The decree stipulated a maximum of 250 members per electoral district in governorates, comprising 127 seats allocated to the workers and farmers sector and 123 seats for the rest of the populace.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Syria Today – Parliamentary Elections Nearing… What’s at Stake?
Src: Syrian Observer, April 29, 2024
The Atlantic Council has published a study discussing this summer’s upcoming elections for the Syrian People’s Assembly, held in government-controlled areas under Bashar al-Assad. The paper says the elections are part of a series designed to maintain the Baath Party’s control. These elections occur amidst significant displacement, ongoing conflict, and stringent regime control, with no real prospects for free or fair voting. Concurrently, elections in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and the formation of a Supreme Electoral Committee in northwest Syria highlight regional efforts to organize governance, though the integrity of these processes is also questionable.
The article anticipates that the main role of the newly elected parliament will be to amend the constitution to allow President Assad to run again in 2028, continuing a pattern of manipulated constitutional changes to sustain regime power. Despite the setup of the UN-facilitated Syrian Constitutional Committee for potential reforms, it has been inactive, stalling any meaningful progress toward resolving Syria’s political crisis under UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which calls for inclusive and transparent elections.
The registration process for the elections is behind schedule, further casting doubt on their legitimacy, while international actors like Russia continue to legitimize the flawed electoral process. Overall, the upcoming elections are viewed as another step in perpetuating Assad’s regime rather than a genuine opportunity for political reform or resolution.
SSM Editor’s Response:
The paper from the Atlantic Council quoted above is very much aligned with US foreign policy. They think that the only purposes of the Assembly, the Syrian Parliament, is to block their objectives in Syria. The local issues that normally dominate a national congress are of no interest to them. Their desire to be rid of Bashar Assad and the Baath Party is not new. The Syrian National Assembly represents the people. It is written into the Constitution that half the seats are reserved for Workers and Farmers so they may better address the needs of the people, in Arabic, Al Shaab.
The U.S. and their allies fought a ten year proxy war to unseat the current government and dismantle the secular republic that governs Syria, but failed. They now occupy a large swath of Syria, which is not well governed, and where the people are free to participate in those elections as the central Syrian Government would like to have more influence there. The Caesar Sanctions, Unilateral Coercive Measures implemented by the US in Syria, against the Syrian people and extended to undermine global sovereignty in relations with Syria have impoverished 80% of the people.
And these people know who is responsible for their suffering. They know who nurtured Hayat Tahrir al Shams (al Qaeda in Syria) and ISIS. They know who is occupying their resources and deliberately starving them. One would think that if they want a free-er more democratic government in Syria, more open to popular movements and more supportive of the people’s needs, you would want to enrich Syrians, help them to rebuild, to lift the veil of fear and frustration emitted by poverty and loss for practically everyone. Instead they want to blame the president who could have taken the money and run at the first sign of trouble, but who has instead, stuck with them through thick and thin. But, of course, that is not the goal of the U.S. In fact the goal is to open the way to an religio-ethnic autocracy that is much easier to control than the multi-ethnic, religiously diverse, pluralistic republic that Syria is today and has been for many years. They belittle the Syrian Parliament because it is too democratic, not because it has somehow failed.
In a country ravaged by war, pillaged by global thieves, and suffocating under the boot of an imperial wolf-pack, one must be ever vigilant, cautious. What is at stake is the identity of the people. What is at stake is security and stability. If the Atlantic Council is ready to criticize the democracy of elections in Syria, perhaps they should first look around at home, and consider the sadly lacking democratic possibilities of an election contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a contest whose outcome will be decided by money. Or, any political contest between Republicans and Democrats Whether the Syrians like their President is their business. In this country we don’t choose our candidates and a significant majority of the people are not happy with the ones chosen for us.
So why punish the Syrians. Why not give peace a chance?
