Al-Assad desires to replace Presidential referendum by democratic elections
Syria, Politics, 1/11/2001

Sources close to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that he seeks to launch democratic presidential elections when his first term of office will end, started six months ago.

The sources told the Lebanese daily al-Safir in its Wednesday issue that President al-Assad had expressed in one of the meetings of the Regional Leadership of the Baath Arab Socialist party his desire not to make a presidential referendum when this time comes after 7 years, which is the full presidential term permitted by the Syrian constitution.

The sources expressed optimism over the atmospheres that might prevail in the country after economic and political reforms will be reinforced until then ( the end of the seven years). Reforms which have been followed up by the 6th President for the Syrian Arab republic since he assumed power in Syria on July 17, 2000.

Earlier President Bashar al-Assad released 600 political detainees from the Syrian jails, closed al-Mezze military prison in Damascus. He also permitted the parties of the national progressive front to issue their own special papers, besides amending the people's Assembly ( parliament) elections in the coming phase ( after two years) through abrogating lists of the ( national progressive front) a matter which will permit the Parliament to contain more independent parliament members.

However, the last presidential elections in Syria since its independence until the present time was in 1962 when the Syrian parliament elected Nazim Qidsi as a president, and the same kind of elections also inaugurated Shukri al-Quwatli as a President for the Syrian Arab Republic in the 1950 s.

The first presidential referendum was under President Hosni al-Zaem in 1949.

In a referendum held on July 2000, according to which he was inaugurated as a President for Syria, President Bashar al-Assad won 97.29% of the voters, after the Baath Party regional leadership asked the people's assembly to debate the presidential nomination for a people's referendum.

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