Beirut: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has said that he is willing to hold early presidential elections if the Syrian people want them, in remarks released yesterday.
“Is there popular will to hold early presidential elections? If there is, I don’t have a problem with it,” Al Assad told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, according to an Arabic-language transcript provided by Damascus.
Al Assad’s term is set to end in 2021, but a peace process backed by world powers envisages UN-monitored parliamentary and presidential elections within the next 18 months.
Al Assad’s future, including whether he would be allowed to run in those elections, remains controversial.
The opposition insists he must stand down.
Four-year term
Elections for parliament, which has a four-year term, are scheduled for April 13. The previous round was in May 2012.
Syria last held a presidential poll in June 2014, when Al Assad was re-elected for a seven-year term with 88.7 percent of the vote.
At the time, polling took place only in government-controlled territory and in several dozen countries that have not cut diplomatic ties with Syria’s government, including Lebanon.
Al Assad said all Syrian citizens would have the opportunity to vote in a future presidential vote.
“It would include every Syrian, whether he is inside Syria or outside Syria, he said.
Meanwhile, a report by Al Hayat newspaper yesterday said that US Secretary of State John Kerry had told several Arab countries that Russia and the US reached an understanding on the future of Syria’s peace process, including Al Assad’s departure to another country at some unspecified stage.
Russia denied the report. “Russia does not discuss the issue of the self-determination of third countries either through diplomatic or other channels,” the Kremlin said.
—AFP
