DAMASCUS, 23 April 2007 — Two days of voting for Syria’s Parliament began slowly yesterday amid widespread lack of enthusiasm for a poll which opposition activists have urged supporters to boycott.
In the capital Damascus where heavy pollution dimmed the sun, voters trickled to electoral booths but with many passers-by shrugging off appeals by militant candidates for them to vote, and ignoring the patriotic songs of state television.
“I’m not going to vote. I don’t know any of the candidates. And I could make up all their slogans myself,” said one young woman pointing dismissively to one of the myriad posters carrying merely photos and slogans.
But Ghofrane, a pharmacist wearing a white veil, said as she headed to the booth: “I am going to the ballot because I want my country to know change.” At several polling stations, such as in Sabaa Bahrat square in the heart of the capital, young activists lobbying on behalf of their particular candidate outnumbered voters.
The same scene was repeated in the western district of Jdaidet Artuz and the southern Jaramana suburb, where one polling station official said: “It’s still early. Voting lasts for two days.” That optimism was not shared by one candidate’s activist in one polling center. “It’s a real disaster. Nobody has been coming to vote since the morning,” a candidate said.
“There is a total lack of interest in the election and I’m worried that they might extend it for more than two days if nobody comes tomorrow.” As two women arrived in the afternoon, a dozen militants rushed toward them to try to “sell” their candidates. Nearly 12 million Syrians are eligible to vote, according to the official SANA news agency, which also reported that 2,500 candidates were standing for the 250 seats in the assembly.
Residents appeared split on whether the election, totally lacking in suspense for most people, would bring any change.
Of the 250 seats, 167 are reserved for the ruling National Progressive Front (NPF) coalition, led by Bashar Assad’s Baath party. The party itself is guaranteed 131 seats, or 52 percent of the total.
The other 83 seats are allocated to so-called independent candidates “close to the authorities,” according to lawyer Hassan Abdel-Azim, spokesman for six banned, but largely tolerated, parties operating under the umbrella National Democratic Rally (NDR). Abdel-Azim said it was “pointless to take part in an election whose results are known in advance... The NPF will come out the winner,” as it has done in all organized elections since 1973.
