In 4e mandate in sight for Bashar al-Assad? At the head of a country ravaged by conflicts, the Syrian president submitted, on Wednesday April 21, a request for the presidential candidacy of May 26. An election that seems certain to him, after two decades in power, reported state media. Candidates have until April 28 to come forward to the High Constitutional Court, which checks that they meet the required conditions. To be validated, their candidacy must also obtain the support of 35 deputies, out of the 250 in Parliament, practically all of them belonging to Bashar al-Assad’s Baath party.
The Parliament “has been informed by the High Constitutional Court that Bashar al-Assad has submitted an application for candidacy for the post of President of the Republic”, announced the head of the Assembly, Hammouda Sabbagh, quoted by the official agency Sana . The 55-year-old Syrian president will be running for his fourth term. He came to power in 2000, after the death of his father Hafez, himself at the head of Syria for three decades. This is the sixth application for candidacy. Five other people little known to the public, including a former parliamentarian, a businessman and a lawyer, have already come forward to the High Constitutional Court.
A country in ruins, ravaged by war
The poll will be the second held since the start, in 2011, of a devastating conflict that left more than 388,000 dead. In 2014, Bashar al-Assad won the election with more than 88% of the vote. Only two competitors were in the running, strangers considered to be stooges. The electoral law effectively prevents opposition figures in exile from running. Each candidate must indeed “have lived in Syria for a period of ten years continuously at the time of applying”.
Supported by Iran and Russia, Bashar al-Assad has chained the military victories in recent years against the rebels and the jihadists, until reclaiming nearly two-thirds of the territory. The ruined country has been hit for more than a year by an acute economic crisis, marked by a tumble of the national currency against the dollar and an explosion of inflation.
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