With great momentum and wide broadcasting spaces devoted to it by the Syrian regime's media, the elections for the People's Assembly were launched in Syria, while the opposition and activists described them as repeated and decided in advance and aiming to juggle the will of the people.
Elections are being held to select 250 deputies to fill the seats in the People's Assembly, which are contested by prominent businessmen whose names are listed on the list of Western sanctions.
The Syrian regime's media outlets published pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and his wife casting their votes, and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said in a press statement while casting his vote that this constitutional entitlement confirms that Syria is going ahead in the democratic process, and that the people are determined to accomplish all constitutional benefits, such as their determination to liberate their lands from Terrorism and from all foreign presence is illegal.
Prime Minister Eng. Hussein Arnous was also quoted as saying that the elections represent a political victory that will be added to the military victories by delegating the Syrian Arab people to their representatives, which reflects the true democracy that does not resemble the democracies they claim.
Comic elections
For its part, the self-administration announced in the areas of control of what is known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, that the elections would not take place in areas of its control in northeastern Syria, while the opposition described it as comic.
The head of the Syrian opposition coalition, Nasr Al-Hariri, told Al-Jazeera that these elections are taking place in the presence of more than 13 million displaced and internally displaced persons and half a million disappeared and forcibly detained.
Al-Hariri explained that holding these elections in these circumstances is a confirmation from the Syrian regime of its rejection of any attempt to enter into a comprehensive political process that would achieve stability in Syria.
The Syrian National Coalition also affirmed in a statement that "any elections that are held in the regime's control areas are illegitimate elections because they are issued by a terrorist regime that is totally lost to any legitimacy or credibility."
And he considered that these elections are no more than intelligence measures that carry no institutional value at all, and cannot be viewed with any degree of seriousness.
Well-known results,
and these elections are the third of their kind since the beginning of the revolution against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which are elections for which government and private media have singled out large live broadcast areas, and he has witnessed great turnout.
Syrian activists considered that the People's Assembly elections are only formal because their results are known in advance, as the ruling Baath Party has always achieved an overwhelming majority for decades in this poll, which is organized every four years.
They asked, "Does the ruling regime in Syria really need these elections, given that all Syrians, even those who support them, know the process of choosing representatives even before the elections, or is it a desire to change faces only?"
Journalist Mustafa Al-Sayyid believes that the greatest common denominator of the People's Assembly elections is breaking the people's will, by serving the interlocking system of plunder that stole Syria's economy from top to bottom, starting from the state’s public budget and ending with the plundering of people's property within the plunder of identity.
Al-Sayyid believes that these elections are being held to publicly and shame the will of the people managed by the looting system in Syria, which absorbs the national product to pump into the economies of the global looting system which have been entrusted with the task of governing and draining Syria since the first military coup in Syria in 1949.
According to Al-Sayed, Syria will remain vulnerable to counterfeiting the will so that its people can work to highlight local leaders facing the corruption system with powerful tools that allow them to confront it without more losses for the Syrian people who have been subjected to genocide and displacement for decades.
The role of the People's Assembly
studies and approves the bills of laws submitted by the government, and it has the right to hold the government fully accountable or its ministers individually and nominate the president of the republic, in addition to carrying out other tasks and powers.
In the year 2000, shortly after the death of former President Hafez al-Assad, the council changed the conditions for the nomination of the President of the Republic, paving the way for his son Bashar al-Assad to receive the reins of power until now.
The mandate of the Syrian People's Assembly extends for four years, and the assembly is divided into two sectors, which are workers and peasants, and the rest of the people’s sectors, and the seats are divided equally between the two sectors, but the two sectors are distributed among the National Progressive Front parties with ready lists, and independents have a number of seats.
The Syrian regime says that it works in the composition of the People's Assembly to take into account the ethnic, sectarian, and religious diversity, but a study by the Bridges Center for Studies showed that the council in its previous legislative role included a number of loyal armed militia leaders established by Assad after 2011, in addition to retired officers from the security and army, Which the study considered a form of reward for their services.