Syrian Elections: Democratic or Bloody – Global Arab Network – Suzan Ahmad
Since the Syrian regime announced holding presidency elections next June, many campaigns have been launched to remind the world why Assad cannot be a president anymore.
Killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, displacing millions and detaining hundreds of Syrians for three years, yet Bashar Assad is the main candidate for presidency in Damascus.
Although presidential elections in Syria will be a “parody of democracy” according to Foreign Secretary William Hague, International Community has done nothing so far to stop this “silly play” as activists say.
One of the organizers of “Blood Elections”, anti-Assad campaign, Yousuf al-Bustani explained how Assad is planning to run elections in areas under his control and cannot do that in many big cities in Syria, which means that millions of people in “free” regions, refugee camps and other countries around the world will not vote.
“These are illegitimate elections” al-Bustani said; “how can we accept the results of elections held over the blood of our brothers and corpses of our children?!”
Al-Bustani stressed the idea that “Blood Elections”, campaign launched early this month, is a volunteering movement aiming to show the world why Syrians are against these elections and explain how it is bloody by publishing data and photos document Assad crimes against his own people.
“Very slow net connection and power cut off for long hours are some of the challenges we face while trying to coordinate peaceful activities with other people around the world to help us stop this silly play” al-Bustani added.
He and activists working with him hope that they can make the world do something to stop bloodshed in Syria and take Assad to International Criminal Court after using chemical weapons, SCUD missiles, cluster bombs, and hunger to kill innocent civilians.
It is worth mentioning that it is the first time Syria is holding presidency elections since it used to be a referendum on one person, Assad the father in the last decade and the son later.
On the other hand, a Damascene university student Juliet believes that anti-elections campaigns can do nothing practically, yet they are important to let the world know that Syrians are against such elections and to keep crimes committed by Assad vivid in everybody’s memory.
“It can be dangerous for us in Damascus to boycott the alleged elections due to the fact that we are supposed to set our exams during the elections and government employees were asked officially to be available at ballot centers on that day.” Juliet said.
She adds “Does the regime really want us to believe that there is democracy in Syria! What about millions of refugees? What about 300 thousands of dead Syrian? It is merely a play. Assad is mocking the world and the world is just turning a blind eye to bloodbath here.”
According to the Syrian Parliament, there are three candidates for the position of Syrian president in Damascus.
date : 20/05/2014