Syrian regime calls expatriate voters to register for 'sham' presidential elections
Syrian regime calls expatriate voters to register for 'sham' presidential elections
The vote will be the second presidential election to be held since the Assad regime began its brutal crackdown on protesters a decade ago.
2 min read
The last presidential elections took place in 2014 [Getty]
Syrian embassies in a number of countries are calling on citizens to register to vote in the latest regime-sponsored presidential elections to be held since the 2011 uprising.
Elections held under the regime of President Bashar al-Assad are widely considered to be a sham by outside observers and yield improbable results for regime-sponsored candidates.
Syrian citizens residing in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Venezuela, France, Sudan, Kuwait, Sweden and the United Kingdom have been invited to register to vote by Damascus' diplomatic missions, The New Arab's sister site Al-Modon reported.
The Syrian embassy in Abu Dhabi said voters had until April 25 to register to vote in the presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place by mid-May.
The vote will be the second presidential election to take place in Syria since the Assad regime began a brutal crackdown on protesters a decade ago.
A 2014 election, which took place amid the raging conflict and was considered illegitimate by most observers, awarded President Bashar al-Assad more than 90 percent of the vote.
A Russian intervention has since enabled Assad to claw back control over most of Syria from opposition forces while at least 5.6 million refugees have fled Syria with another 6.1 million displaced within the country.
More than 500,000 people are thought to have been killed over the course of the brutal conflict, most of them by Syrian regime forces.
Last month, the US ambassador to the United Nations urged the rest of the world "not to be fooled" by the upcoming Syrian elections.
"These elections will neither be free nor fair. They will not legitimise the Assad regime," Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
Thomas-Greenfield reitirated the US's position that it will not support any elections in Syria that do not meet conditions outlined in a 2015 UN Security Council resolution.
Those conditions include a political settlement to the conflict and the drafting of a new constitution. Elections would also be required to be held under UN supervision.
Elections held under the regime of President Bashar al-Assad are widely considered to be a sham by outside observers and yield improbable results for regime-sponsored candidates.
Syrian citizens residing in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Venezuela, France, Sudan, Kuwait, Sweden and the United Kingdom have been invited to register to vote by Damascus' diplomatic missions, The New Arab's sister site Al-Modon reported.
The Syrian embassy in Abu Dhabi said voters had until April 25 to register to vote in the presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place by mid-May.
The vote will be the second presidential election to take place in Syria since the Assad regime began a brutal crackdown on protesters a decade ago.
A 2014 election, which took place amid the raging conflict and was considered illegitimate by most observers, awarded President Bashar al-Assad more than 90 percent of the vote.
A Russian intervention has since enabled Assad to claw back control over most of Syria from opposition forces while at least 5.6 million refugees have fled Syria with another 6.1 million displaced within the country.
More than 500,000 people are thought to have been killed over the course of the brutal conflict, most of them by Syrian regime forces.
Last month, the US ambassador to the United Nations urged the rest of the world "not to be fooled" by the upcoming Syrian elections.
"These elections will neither be free nor fair. They will not legitimise the Assad regime," Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
Thomas-Greenfield reitirated the US's position that it will not support any elections in Syria that do not meet conditions outlined in a 2015 UN Security Council resolution.
Those conditions include a political settlement to the conflict and the drafting of a new constitution. Elections would also be required to be held under UN supervision.
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