​​​​​​​Syria ... elections in absence of millions of Syrians, what to change?

Syrians follow the presidential elections amid contradictory views to describe these elections as a "farce" and a "democratic wedding."

On Thursday, May 20, the Syrian embassies abroad opened their doors for Syrians to vote in those elections, six days before the elections at home, as the elections committees inside Syria open their doors to the voters, today, Tuesday.

In the absence of any monitoring role and honest statistics on the number of voters abroad, it is difficult to determine the rate of participation, but pictures of the embassies showed very small number.

Inside Syria, these elections will only take place in areas under the control of government forces, which are estimated to be less than two-thirds of the country.

Turkey occupies Jarablus, al-Bab, Afrin, Serekaniyê, Girê-Spî, parts of Idlib, Hama, and the countryside of Aleppo and Latakia.

The Syrian Democratic Council announced that it will not be part of these elections in a statement published on its official account, the Council said that it is not concerned with any elections that do not achieve the goals of Syrians in their lives, rights and political presence.

'More than half of the Syrian people will not participate in the elections'

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the 6.6 million Syrian refugees around the world are mostly in Turkey (Turkey currently hosts the largest number of registered Syrian refugees, that is, more than 3.6 million people) and Germany, which prevented the holding of presidential elections on its soil.

In addition to these refugees, there are approximately 5 million Syrians residing in the Autonomous Administration areas of Nort and East Syria, in addition to more than 3 million in the areas occupied by Turkey, and this means that more than 14 million Syrians, that is, more than half the number of Syrians. They will not participate in these elections (the population of Syria, according to official statistics in 2011, was 21.1 million), which raises frank questions about the legitimacy of these elections.

Despite Damascus accepting the candidacy applications for two others with Bashar al-Assad, namely Mahmoud Marei and Abd Sallum Abdullah, Syrian and international parties considered that the election results were already settled in favor of Assad.

'Comic play'

The Syrian academic and opposition, Marah Al-Buqa’i, praised the Syrian Democratic Council’s declaration that it “will not be part of the pre-made Syrian election farce.”

She explained, "The results are known in advance in light of a security authority controlling political and administrative life. In Syria, free and fair elections cannot take place, and the world knows that and, within Resolution 2254, the holding of internationally monitored elections, this did not happen. Therefore, there will be no recognition of the results of these elections and there will be any change that takes place in order to move towards a political transition unless the regime decides to submit to the UN resolutions and will of the Syrian people first and to the international will, secondly to achieve a political transition with all its clauses in which Resolution 2254 was mentioned.

'Loyalty and opposition in despair'

Regarding the elections that were held abroad, Al-Buqai said: "It was very clear that the turnout was significantly weak and significantly weaker than it was in 2014, and this means that everyone is loyal and opposed and began to feel complete despair from this system and its continuation."

"The opposition wants regime change and a complete political transition within international decisions, and the loyalists have discovered that all the support they provided to the Syrian regime has turned against them now, and was not been able to stand up to aid them in life and economics, help their families, and martyrs to the extent that they offered to support it in his survival in power," she explained. They despair of this regime. "

Elections amid the sharing of influence in Syria!

Regarding the holding of these elections amid the sharing of influence on the Syrian lands, she said: " what is happening in Syria is more dangerous than the division, which is the sharing of influence between the active states on the Syrian soil."

She added, "This is a very dangerous thing, because division may be treated by rejecting it international campaigns so that it is not recognized or recognized by the United Nations, as for power-sharing; this is the greater danger than division because it is very difficult to deal with it unless all the foreign armies will leave, and the real political transition process begins. "

'Nothing will change after that'

Regarding the value of these elections, she said: “European society, the United States of America and much of the free world and the opposition will not recognize these elections and they have neither value nor significance for them, so nothing will change, but the Syrian people will unfortunately remain besieged, and the Syrian regime weak. He is severely besieged, but he carries out the orders of the Iranian militias on the ground and the Russian army.

"We must return to Geneva and to international legitimacy, and the political transition must be achieved, because these elections have no value, either on the ground or at the level of political and diplomatic action," she stressed.

Why did Damascus insist on holding the elections?

On the goals of the Damascus government, Al-Buqai said: "Bashar al-Assad's float personally and this means the survival of the ruling clique in Syria. They own the revolution in Syria. They have the security and political decision in Syria. Of course, it is now under the direction of the Russian forces and Iranian militias on the ground."

She added, "This is the direct reason is that al-Assad wants to tell the world that he is still able to control. and this is all fictitious and only in the screens and the media, and we know that he has no credibility on the ground." 

'An ongoing state of denial'

On the mentality of the Damascus government after years of war, al-Buqa’i said: “The Assad regime is still in a state of complete denial of what is going on around it and what is going on on Syrian soil, and it does not want to admit that half of the Syrian people are displaced and hundreds of thousands of them are in detention centers. To be precise, there are nearly a million martyrs, and Syria is in a deplorable economic and health condition as a result of the Corona epidemic.

She added, "The country is completely devastated, nothing remains in it until now except the Iranian militias that wreak corruption, and the arrogant Russian army imposes its control, influence and vision on the regime and on Syrian soil, and the regime is trapped between the international siege and the siege of its people to it, as well as the pressures exerted on it by the forces that helped keep it in power, which are the next militias." From Iran and the Russian forces on the ground. "

'Damascus is delaying political transition'

Regarding what the regime had to do, Al-Biqai said: "It is to comply with international decisions and carry out the political transition process that will happen even if it is delayed. It only delays the political surgical work that has become necessary to eradicate this tumor present in the Syrian body half a century ago. The political transition is coming, which delays treatment." Only, this delay is paid by the Syrians, unfortunately, from their blood, strength, daily life, stability and pension. "

'The international community should seriously intervene.'

She added, "I do not think that the Syrian regime, in the state of denial in which it is living, can achieve this political transition. There must be very large international support for this transition and that it takes place within a short period, not for a long time, because any lengthening of the process of change in Syria has become very necessary to change the lives and return of Syrians." To their normalcy, because their lives now are not normal, neither economically, politically, nor security-wise, nor humanly. "

"In order for the Syrians' lives to return to this natural path, the international community must now and effectively contribute, and not only to diplomatic work, speech and messages, by implementing it in order to achieve the political transition and the transition in Syria to the desired civil democratic state," the Syrian academic and opposition, Marah Al-Buqai, ​​explained at the end of her speech. Pluralism for all of its children, the rule of law and equal citizenship.

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ANHA