Businessmen make inroads in Syrian elections
Syria, Politics, 12/4/1998

The list of the National Progressive Front, which comprises the ruling coalition in Syria led by the Baath Arab Socialist Party, won the People's Assembly elections with all its 167 members winning in the elections held on Monday and Tuesday.

The Syrian minister of the interior announced that 25 independent candidates from sector A, "workers and peasants," and 48 candidates from sector B, other social strata, won in the elections.

Well-informed sources said the majority of the winners from sector B are businessmen and attributed their wins in the election to the millions of dollars they spent during the election campaign, whereas other sources said this is "an indication of the openness of the Syrian economy."

Bade Fallaha, a merchant who won a seat in Damascus, told reporters on Thursday "The Syrian merchants who won membership in the PA are linked to the same program that pours towards the efforts to amend certain economic rules in a way to improve the performance of the Syrian economy and to qualify it to withstand international challenges."

The number of females in the PA rose from 24 in the 6th legislative session to 26 in the current session, whereas number of PA members under the age of 50 increased to 119, including for the first time some 13 under the age of 35.

The two members of the Baath Party's regional leadership, Abdul Qader Qaddoura and Ahmad Qabalan, won the elections. One of the two men is expected to be elected as Speaker of the new PA.

Some 77.5% of the voters cast their ballots, compared to 61% in the previous elections. Syrian Minister of the Interior Muhammad Harba said the number of eligible voters was 8,600,071, noting that among those are citizens who live abroad and could not come back to obtain their election cards, so they did not vote, as well as policemen and army members who are not permitted to vote according to the law. The Syrian minister estimated the number of those people at 1.5 million, thereby the actual number of voters who cast their voiced was 7,100,071.

Harba stressed that the elections were honest, noting that only in the province of Deir ez Zour were the vote counts repeated when more envelopes were found in the boxes.

The candidate for the National Progressive Front, Maha Qanout, had the largest number of votes in the city of Damascus and TV anchor specializing in religious issues Marwan Sheikhou won a large number of votes.

Previous Stories:
  Final results of Syrian PA elections to be announced today   (12/3/1998)
  Syrian vice president: Each country's democracy is different   (12/1/1998)
  On the Syrian PA elections   (12/1/1998)

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