Amid international calls to boycott him, Syrian People’s Assembly sets date for presidential elections

The Syrian People’s Assembly has set a date for the presidential elections next month, amid international and other calls from the Syrian opposition to boycott the elections, which were described as theatrical.

People’s Assembly Speaker Hammouda Sabbagh said the presidential elections will be held on May 26 and the opening of the door for presidential candidacies will begin from tomorrow, Monday, calling on those who wish to stand submit their petitions to the Supreme Constitutional Court within 10 days.

The election date for Syrians “in embassies abroad” is set for May 20.

Syrian election rules stipulate that the presidential candidate must have lived in Syria for at least the past ten years, which in practice prevents any opposition figure in exile from running.

The presidential elections, the second since the conflict began in 2011, and held every 7 years, come at a time when the country is going through a stifling economic crisis, and after government forces, with Russian and Iranian military support , have found large surfaces.

President Bashar al-Assad, 55, who has ruled the country since 2000, has yet to officially announce his candidacy for election. He won the last presidential election in June 2014, by more than 88%.

Article 88 of the constitution, which took place in a referendum in 2012, stipulates that the president cannot be elected for more than two terms of 7 years each; But article 155 specifies that these articles do not apply to the outgoing president; Except from the 2014 elections.

Al-Assad assumed the presidency on July 17, 2000, succeeding his father, Hafez, who ruled the country for 30 years. During the first decade of his tenure he pursued a policy of economic openness, until protests erupted in 2011, which he faced with repression and force, and turned into a conflict. bloody, and in its early years it lost control of entire provinces. Publicity

Unlike 2014, thanks to the support of two main allies, Russia and Iran, and following widespread attacks on opposition factions, the presidential elections are held today, after government forces control now about two-thirds of the country, and includes most of the major cities like Aleppo, Homs and Hama.

Calls for a boycott

Nasr al-Hariri, head of the Istanbul-based National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, described the setting of the election date as “theatrical”. He wrote on Twitter that he “confirms the misery of this regime and its continued separation from the reality of the Syrian people”.

At a United Nations Security Council meeting last month, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield said: “These elections will not be free and fair. The Assad regime will not gain any legitimacy ”and” meet the criteria of Resolution 2254, which stipulates that they must be placed under the trusteeship of the United Nations or under a new constitution.

In a joint statement, he called on the foreign ministers of the United States, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom to boycott the presidential elections, which “will not lead to any international normalization of the Syrian regime ”.

More than 10 years of war have resulted in the deaths of more than 388,000 people, the arrest of tens of thousands of people, the destruction of infrastructure, the exhaustion of the economy and the displacement and displacement of more than half of the population.