Some 10,000 candidates for parliamentary elections in Syria on Sunday
More than 10,000 Syrian candidates are competing over 250 seats at the Syrian People's Assembly ( parliament ) on March 2nd in the first parliamentary elections organized in Syria since President Bashar al-Assad assumed power in July 2000.
The ruling Baath Arab socialist party which " leads the state and the society," according to the constitution, together with other parties in the National Progressive Front proposed a joint list of Candidates for the elections including 167 candidates.
The Damascus list of the Baath party and the National Progressive Front includes 16 candidates, 12 of them are Baathists and the others from parties of the National Progressive Front which includes parties that rally with the Baath Party. These are the two communist parties led by Wisal Farha Bakdash and Youssef Faisal, the Arab socialist federation chaired by Safwan Qudsi; the socialists unionists party led by Fayez Ismael; the Arab socialists movement led by Abdul Ghani Qanout and the democratic socialist unionist party -- a Naserite party led by Ahmad al-Ahmad.
Among the candidates of the Baath Party are Abdul Qader Qaddoura ( the speaker of the current people's assembly); Farouk Abu al-Shamat, member of the Baath party regional leadership; Issam al- Jamal the secretary of the Damascus branch of the Baath Party; Ammar al-Saati the chairman of the national Union of Syrian Students; the former deputy foreign minister Suleiman Haddad.
In the recent parliamentary elections in Syria in 1998 all the 167 candidates of the progressive national front won the elections, including 135 for the Baath Party.
The election campaign started in Syria on January 26th. Streets and squares of Damascus are abundant with the pictures of the candidates and banners often bearing phrases such as " yes for young capacities ;" " science and work," " for the sake of a progressive economic and industrial society;" or simply " vote for the independent Candidate of Damascus ."
The Syrian people's assembly ( parliament) was established in 1971. It appoints the candidate for the presidential elections and discusses the government's policy and approves the laws and the budget.
