Syria
A poster of Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's old city as seen during a guided tour by the Russian army. File photo: Maxime Popov/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Syria’s parliament announced on Sunday that presidential elections will be held on May 26, state media reported.
“The date of the Presidential elections for Syrians abroad will start on May 20, 2021, while the date of the presidential elections will be set on May 26th for Syrians resident on the Syrian territory,” parliament speaker Hammoudah Sabbagh was quoted by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) as saying.
The United States has previously warned that it won’t recognize the elections without UN supervision.
“It’s clear that the regime will leverage the upcoming presidential elections in May to unfairly claim Assad’s legitimacy,” said acting US deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, during the 10th anniversary of the Syrian uprising on March 18.
The last presidential election was held in 2014.
The US has sanctioned senior Syrian government officials and entities that it considers assets to the Assad regime, including President Bashar al-Assad’s wife Asmaa and members of her immediate family based in the United Kingdom, the Central Bank of Syria, and a number of business networks directly or indirectly related to the Syrian government.
Assad rose to power in 2000 after calls for reform raised hope of democratic opening following his father’s three-decade rule. By the summer of 2001, Assad was cracking down on dissent. The Syrian president hasn’t yet announced he will stand for re-election.
Syrians first took to the streets in 2011 to protest against Assad, before evolving into a civil war involving multiple countries.
The war has left 13.4 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
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