Syrians vote for next parliament, which could allow Assad to extend his rule

By ALBERT AJI and ABBY SEWELL

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrians voted Monday for members of a new parliament in elections that are expected to hold few surprises but could pave the way for a constitutional amendment to extend President Bashar al-Assad’s term.

It is the fourth election in Syria since mass anti-government protests and a brutal crackdown by security forces spiraled into an ongoing civil war in 2011.

This year, 1,516 government-approved candidates are running for the 250 seats in the People’s Assembly.

The number of eligible voters has not been announced. In parliamentary elections, unlike presidential elections, the millions of Syrians in the diaspora, whose numbers have exploded since the civil war, are not eligible to vote.

About 8,151 polling stations have been set up in 15 electoral districts located in government-controlled areas.

In the Druze-majority province of Sweida, where anti-government protests have been taking place regularly for nearly a year, many people have called for a boycott of the elections. Videos posted online show protesters seizing ballot boxes from a truck in an attempt to prevent voters from reaching polling stations.

Elsewhere, campaigning has been low-key, with candidates’ campaigns largely focused on broad slogans such as national unity and prosperity.

Assad’s Baath Party won 166 seats in the 2020 elections, representing nearly two-thirds of its membership, in addition to 17 members from allied parties. Another 67 seats were won by independent candidates.

Vladimir Pran, an independent adviser on transitional political and electoral processes, said the competitive part of the Syrian electoral process comes before voters go to the polls, during the Baath Party primary process, when party members vote on which candidate names are sent to the party’s central command to draw up the final list.

“The elections are already over… with the end of the primary process,” he said. Once the Baath Party list is finalized, “you will be able to check the list and the results, and you will see that all the candidates will be in parliament.”

The number of incumbents on the final list this year was relatively low, suggesting a shake-up within the Baath party.

Maroun Sfeir, a consultant on transitional electoral and political processes, said the 169 candidates presented by the Baath party alone exceed the margin of 167 MKs needed to propose a constitutional amendment, protect the president from being accused of treason and veto legislation.

Adding to that 16 candidates from parties allied with the Baath running on the same list, he said, “you are only three deputies short of getting three-quarters of the parliament, which is necessary to (adopt) a constitutional amendment.”

Although that leaves 65 seats open for independent candidates, Sfeir said they should not be expected to present a real opposition bloc.

“They are all pre-screened… to ensure that they are all loyal and pose no threat,” he said.

With Assad’s term limited and his presidency set to end in 2028, it is highly likely that the next parliament will try to pass a constitutional amendment to extend his term.

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Sewell reported from Beirut.