2021 Syrian presidential election

2021 Syrian presidential election

26 May 2021 (2021-05-26)

Elections in Syria File:Abdullah Salloum Abdullah.jpg Nominee Bashar al-Assad Mahmoud Ahmad Marei Abdullah Sallum Abdullah Party Ba'ath DASU SUP Alliance NPF NCC NPF

Incumbent President Bashar al-Assad Ba'ath Party

Presidential elections will be held in the Syrian Arab Republic on 26 May 2021, with expatriates able to vote in some foreign embassies on 20 May. The three candidates are incumbent president Bashar al-Assad, Abdullah Salloum Abdullah and Mahmoud Ahmed Merei.

Background

The election will take place as the Syrian civil war enters the eleventh year of conflict and as a result the country still remains divided among various factions. As of 2020 Syria remains the largest source country of refugees with 6.6 million refugees having fled the nation since the start of the conflict.

Selection of candidates

The Speaker of the People's Assembly of Syria Hammouda Sabbagh (Ba'ath Party) announced the commencement of candidacy for Presidential elections, starting from Monday 19 April. In his speech at the first session of the second extraordinary round of the People’s Assembly, Sabbagh called on those who wish to run to submit their candidacy applications to the Supreme Constitutional Court within a period of 10 days which ends by Wednesday 28 April. The date of the Presidential elections for Syrians abroad will start on 20 May 2021, while the date of the presidential elections in Syria will be 26 May.

Requirements for a presidential candidate

Main article: Constitution of Syria

According to Law n. 5 of the year 2014 of the general elections code, The 5th chapter - article n. 30, the candidate for the post of President of the Syrian Arab Republic must:

• have reached the age of 40 years.
• have Syrian Arab nationality by birth.
• have all their civil and political rights and not be convicted of despicable crime.
• not be married to a foreigner.
• be resident in Syrian territories for no less than 10 consecutive years when standing for election.
• not have a nationality other than that of the Syrian Arab Republic.
• not to be deprived of their right to vote.

Further eligibility requirements in the Constitution include:

• The religion of the President is Islam (Article 3)
• The President cannot carry another nationality (Article 152)

The requirement for candidates to be backed by 35 members of parliament gives power to the ruling National Progressive Front, which dominates the assembly, and the requirement to have lived continuously in Syria for the past 10 years excludes opposition figures in exile.

Candidates

On 3 May, the Syrian Supreme Constitutional Court announced that three candidates had been accepted, with the others rejected for not meeting the constitutional and legal conditions:

• Bashar al-Assad, incumbent president of Syria (2000–present) and Ba'ath Party candidate (Damascus)
• Mahmoud Ahmed Merei, lawyer, born 1957, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights and former secretary-general of the National Front for the Liberation of Syria. He is former President of the Youth Office at the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, member of the internal oppositon delegation to the Geneva peace talks on Syria (2017). Democratic Arab Socialist Union Party (NCC) candidate (Damascus)
• Abdullah Sallum Abdullah, born 1956, former state minister for People's Assembly Affairs, former MP and Socialist Unionists Party candidate (Aleppo)

Unsuccessful candidates

Candidates reported to have put themselves forward included:

• Jamal Suliman, actor and Syria's Tomorrow Movement candidate
• Mohamad Muafaq Sawan, leader of the Democratic Unionist Reform Party (Damascus)
• Faten Ali Nahar, 50-year old independent lawyer (Quneitra)
• Mohamad Firas Yassin Rajouh, engineer, activist, and a businessman, independent (Damascus)
• Mohamad Nadim Sha'ban, independent (Damascus)

Campaign

• On May 16, an election campaign was launched across the country with billboards, posters and leaflets.
• On May 15, Mahmoud Ahmed Marei launched his campaign with the main goals: 1. "Together to release prisoners of consience", 2. "Together for a participatory Government of National Unity with a real representation of the Opposition"'. At the same time, his pre-election page on Facebook and other social networks was launched. His pre-election spot was broadcast on Sama TV, Syria TV and Syrian News Channel. On May 16, the candidate gave an hour-long interviews to Syria TV, Syrian News Channel and Sama TV. He also gave an interview to Al-Watan newspaper.
• Also on Saturday, the current President's campaign was launched with the slogan: "Hope is with work". His other main motto is: Together we challenge. The campaign has its pages on Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Instagram and others. Like other campaigns, this one has its spots on Sama TV, Syria TV and the Syrian News Channel.
• Abdullah Sallum Abdullah's campaign with slogans: 1. '"Our strength in our unity" 2."Strengthening the role of the NPF and reactivating the role of the parties affiliated with it", was launched on Saturday, May 15, with a campaign page on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. The candidate's pre-election spots were also broadcast on Sama TV, Syria TV and Syrian News Channel. On 17 May Abdullah gave an interview on the Syrian News Channel in which called on all the Syrians to nationally unite to confront any problem or danger that threaten their country. He further reminded that it is necessary to enable and subsequently implement the return of all refugees back to the republic and to have suitable conditions for living in the country. Then noted the need to end the war, the occupation of the USA, Turkey and Israel. And finally he promised to protect national interests, economic development and the fight against corruption.

Elections

• Prior to these elections, the Supreme Electoral Committee was also formed.

Expatriates

Expatriate voting occurred on 20 May in those countries where it was allowed. The turn-out was high in Lebanon, where over 800,000 Syrian refugees live. Thousands were bussed to the embassy outside Beirut to vote and Lebanese security forces struggled to control the crowd. Many voters carried portraits of Assad and chanted pro-Assad slogans, and the embassy played pro-Assad music. Violent attacks on Syrian voters by Lebanese people were reported. It was estimated that 50,000 of the 1.2 million Syrians in Lebanon voted. On May 23, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Dr. Faisal Mekdad, who handed over the election results, to the Minister of Justice Ahmed Al-Sayed, and to the Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections, the results of counting the votes of the Syrian voters residing abroad. At the same time, they thanked all voters for participating in the elections, which they described as peaceful and democratic, with the exception of Lebanon, and some Western states, where some voters were prevented from participating. Finally, it was stated that these results would be included in the total and published together with them.

Allowed

The following countries have allowed Syrian citizens to vote:

Algeria Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahrain Belgium Belarus Brazil China Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Egypt France India Indonesia Iraq (hosted Syrian refugees) Iran Japan Jordan Mauritania Malaysia Nigeria Lebanon (hosted Syrian refugees) Oman

Pakistan Poland Romania Russia South Africa South Korea Spain Serbia Sudan Sweden Ukraine United Arab Emirates Venezuela Yemen

Refused

The following eight countries did not allow expatriate voting to be held in the Syrian diplomatic missions:

Canada Germany Qatar Saudi Arabia

The Netherlands Turkey United Kingdom United States

Electoral system

The Constitution of Syria approved in 2012 states that: "Voters shall be the citizens who have completed eighteen years of age and met the conditions stipulated in the Election Law." (Article 59) The Election Law shall include the provisions that ensure: (Article 61)

1. The freedom of voters to choose their representatives and the safety and integrity of the electoral procedures.
2. The right of candidates to supervise the electoral process.
3. Punishing those who abuse the will of the voters.

International observers

According to the state news agency, the People's Assembly voted to invite representatives of the parliaments of these countries to monitor and supervise the electoral process: Algeria, Oman, Mauritania, Russia, Iran, Armenia, China, Venezuela, Cuba, Belarus, South Africa, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

Reactions

Pre-election

Opposition

• The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces said that the elections are "illegal and a farce". The Syrian National Council said “The only acceptable election in Syria is the one in which the war criminal Bashar al-Assad will not participate."

Intergovernmental organisations

• The United Nations has said that the elections are not part of the Syrian peace process and that it is not involved in it.

Nation-states

• France opposed the elections in the absence of a credible political solution: "The presidential election scheduled this year will be neither free nor legitimate. It cannot be used as a tool to circumvent this political solution."
• The United States indicated that it will not recognize the outcome of the elections unless the voting is "free, fair, supervised by the United Nations, and represents all of Syrian society." The State Department said “The proposed Syrian presidential election this year will neither be free nor fair. In this environment, we do not assess this call for elections to be credible.”