Syria Today | Parliamentary Elections 2012

Syria's parliamentary elections are expected to take place in February 2012, as declared by President Bashar al-Assad on the Syrian Satellite Channel on August 21.

The elections, which according to the president would constitute a "political" solution to the pro-democracy protests, were originally scheduled for September 2011 but were delayed in July until the new law regulating political parties was issued and put into effect.

A new electoral law was endorsed by parliament on July 26. In August, new laws authorising political parties and reorganising local administration regulations were also passed. The three laws that come as part of the reform process would enable newly formed political parties to run for parliament and local councils.

Currently, the National Progressive Front (NFP)—an umbrella for political parties headed by the ruling Ba'ath Party—holds 169 seats, while 81 are reserved for independents.

On December 12, municipal elections were held across the country as a first practical step towards general elections. On that day, Prime Minister Adel Safar announced that they were held without the lists of the NFP, which usually reserve seats in parliament for members of this coalition. This change was made to give the opportunity for more candidates to run for office and achieve wider participation from voters because their choices will be expanded, according to Safar.

He also said that the same would be applied during legislative elections. On the same day, Judge Nazir Kheirallah, head of the elections subcommittee in Damascus, told the press that "the voting process was run with an atmosphere of democracy and transparency".

However, a day before votes were cast, the opposition called for general civil disobedience and a boycott of the elections. Thus, although the elections were highly important since they allowed citizens to choose their local representatives for the first time, the turnout varied by region. Private daily Al-Watan reported that turnout was "good in most of the Syrian governorates" and "modest in troubled areas". The elections committee announced that the participation rate averaged 41 percent.

Analysts and observers thus had mixed interpretations of the proceedings. Having refused to take part in the first, test elections, the opposition "does not consider the vote a legitimate concession by the regime because it coincides with a deadly crackdown," Reuters reported.

Hassan Abdul-Azim, head of the opposition National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCC), questioned the rationality of the elections given the turbulent situation in the country." The Syrian government wants to beautify the country's image, but this kind of incomplete revolution is meaningless."

Opposition figure Qadri Jamil, member of the Popular Front for Change and Democracy and head of the Syrian Communist Party, told Al-Watan on December 5 that the elections law "is the same as the old law, but in new clothes".

Political analyst Bassam Abu Abdullah told Syria Today that elections, in general, are part of the reform process but stressed that electing a new parliament is very important since it will ratify the country's new constitution that will bring about democratic change in Syria.

A 27 year-old female who asked for anonymity said that she would vote in the parliamentary elections no matter what. "Choosing the members who are going to represent us in the parliament is our own responsibility and it's our national duty."

"If a new constitution abolishing the eighth article [which stipulates that the Ba'ath is the country's ruling party] was formed and endorsed in time for [parliamentary] elections, I would vote," said a 23-year old female from Damascus who also requested anonymity. "I won't vote under the current violence...It would be about electing different names," she explained, because a mere change of the names of representatives cannot bring about the desired change or boost the role of the parliament in the decision-making process.