‘The right of self determination’

There is nothing more inconsequential or less interesting than a presidential election whose outcome is known before the votes are cast.

This seems to be the case in Syria, where Bashar Assad was re-elected president for another seven-year term.

There were two other candidates in the June 3 election, but the entire election process was actually just a charade, since the endgame was known beforehand.

More than 160,000 Syrians lost their lives during the ongoing civil war, and the killing has continued unabated even as Syrians were going to the polls.

Syria is in the grip of a brutal civil war, with few areas safe enough for the people to cast their votes.

A truly democratic election requires an environment that guarantees safety, security and respect for law and order.

These minimal conditions were not present when the Syrian presidential election took place.

Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls for “genuine elections which shall be universal and equal suffrage... .”

The just-concluded Syrian election does not qualify as “genuine” by any stretch of the imagination.

Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates that ”all peoples have the right of self determination”.

With nearly three million living in camps outside their country, and a bigger number of them internally displaced and living under intimidation, fear and want, there is no way that Syrians are able to exercise this right in the process of electing their president.

Under the prevailing circumstances, it would have been better to postpone the presidential election until normalcy is restored to the country.

This could have been decided by a legislative act extending the term of the incumbent president for one more year in the hope that the civil war will come to an end within this period of time, and law and order, and respect for basic human rights are restored to the country.

Holding election in the absence of minimum standards make it a sham by all international norms.