Idlib refugees reject ‘killer’ regime’s ‘illegal’ elections
He tortured the innocent, killed women and children with chemical weapons and forced millions of people to flee their homelands, say the displaced people of Idlib, stressing that they refuse to accept the elections Bashar Assad plans to hold. Critics have
FORCIBLY displaced Syrians who took refuge in northwestern Syria’s Idlib are denouncing the Bashar Assad regime’s upcoming presidential elections as “illegitimate,” underlining that it is unacceptable for someone who kills his own people and has displaced millions to hold polls in the country.
“It is unacceptable that the regime that killed its people and displaced millions of civilians prepare to hold an election. Assad is an enemy and murderer of the people,” said
Omar Shaban, a civilian who had to emigrate from the Saraqib district, in northeast Idlib.
Abdullah Muhsin, who was also forcibly displaced from Saraqib, agreed with Shaban and underlined that the planned polls are not legitimate.
Ismael Bitar, who left the province of Homs, emphasized the illegitimacy of the regime that killed his parents, imprisoned his brother and expelled millions of civilians from their homes.
“Civilians living under regime control cannot meet their needs. The choice of people
under pressure has no legitimacy,” Bitar said.
Forcibly displaced Firas Alivyi said: “Someone who murdered children with chemical weapons, forced his people to live in camps by displacing them by force is only a murderer. The Assad regime made all kinds of bombardments to suppress the people. It tortured civilians in prison.”
Muhammad Ubeyid, who fled the town of Telminnis in the south of Idlib, said that, “The elections of the regime, which brought terrorists from Russia, Iran and all over the world to kill the people, are not valid.”
called on civilians living under regime control not to participate in the elections.
Yamin Rahim from Idlib also said that Assad should leave the country.
Rahim said, “The Assad regime forcibly displaced civilians. He massacred the children. He destroyed the country’s infrastructure. He is a murderer. He is an enemy of humans. Therefore, we are against the elections to be held.”
The Assad regime, which announced that the presidential election will be held on May 26, has held elections six times during the civil war that has just marked its 10th year.
While intense efforts have been made to end the crisis since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, the Assad regime undermines these steps at every opportunity.
As of 2012, the Assad regime, which adopted an uncompromising attitude during negotiations for the end of the civil war in the country and the formation of a temporary government, often held “show” elections in the regions it controlled.
Last year, the Assad regime once again demonstrated its opposition to the political process by holding “noelectoral” parliamentary elections, despite the protests of opponents, low participation and international objections, during a series of talks by the constitutional committee.
The talks of the Syrian Constitutional Committee under the supervision of the U.N. are also at a deadlock due to the attitude of the Assad regime. As a matter of fact, the fifth round meeting of the committee, which came together on Jan. 25-29, was unsuccessful due to the irreconcilable attitude of the regime.
Syria will hold the upcoming presidential election on May 26 that is expected to keep Assad in power in the
country devastated by a decade of civil war. The election, announced on Sunday by Hamouda Sabbagh, the parliament speaker, comes as Syria is also mired in a deep economic crisis, worsened by sanctions, the pandemic and financial turmoil in Lebanon.
Assad, who took power following the death of his father Hafez in 2000, has not yet officially announced that he will stand for reelection.
The now 55-year-old won a previous poll three years into the war, in 2014, with 88% of the vote.
Since then regime forces have clawed back swathes of territory from the opposition elements with military help from regime allies Russia and Iran.
But large parts of Syria still escape regime control and polling will not take place in those areas. They include the northwestern province of Idlib, the last opposition bastion.
The Idlib region, including nearby districts where other opposition groups are also present, is home to 2.9 million people, of whom two-thirds have fled their homes in other regions ravaged by violence.
Voting will only be allowed for Syrians living in regime-controlled areas or those who are living abroad and registered with their country’s embassies.
OPPOSITION CALLS FOR BOYCOTT
Also, the Syrian opposition yesterday
has stated that it rejects the upcoming presidential elections in the war-torn country and called on Syrians living under regime-controlled areas to boycott the polls.
Head of the Syrian Interim Government, Abdurrahman Mustafa told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the Assad regime long ago fell from the Syrian people’s graces and that the planned elections have no political or legal legitimacy.
“A so-called presidential election the result of which is already known, is nothing other than a bogus and theatre,” Mustafa underlined, “We cannot accept this. The Syrian people want their pain to end by getting rid of the regime. We want our people living under regime control not to participate in these elections.”
Nasr al-Hariri, head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), on the other hand, tweeted on the same day that “the Assad regime’s announcement of a date for its farcical elections confirms it is still detached from reality and the Syrian people who revolted 10 years ago. Assad lost legitimacy with the first drop of blood it shed. All world’s criminals won’t be able to restore a cadaver back to life.”
Mustafa blamed the international community’s lack of a serious stance against Assad for him being able to hold elections.
“When the regime did not see a strong reaction to the massacres it committed against the Syrian people from the international community, it ignored the political solution and decided to hold an election theatre,” he said.
“The only goal of the elections is to legitimize the dictator,” Mustafa highlighted, saying that an election requires the participation of all Syrian people.
Underlining that the regime made the decision as the constitutional committee was pursuing its efforts, Mustafa stated that the regime also bombed civilians over the course of negotiations.
Hariri similarly said that elections can only be accepted if they are carried out in a transparent manner under the supervision of the United Nations.
Hadi Al-Bahra, the co-chair of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, said in January that the Syrian opposition will not recognize any presidential elections organized by the Assad regime.
Presidential hopefuls can submit their candidacies during a 10-day period but in order to qualify, they have to have lived in Syria continuously for at least 10 years, in essence barring opposition figures in exile from running.
Candidates must also have the backing of at least 35 members of parliament, which is dominated by Assad’s Baath Party.