Syrian Court Accepts 3 Candidates to run for President

Syria’s Supreme Constitutional Court has accepted three applications out of 51 for candidacy for this month’s presidential elections within the war-torn country, state media reported Monday.

The largely symbolic election is for certain to be won by President Bashar Assad, who was chosen together with two other men, Abdullah Salloum Abdullah and Mahmoud Ahmad Marie, to run. Some 51 candidates, including seven women, had applied to be candidates. The parliament later referred the names to the constitutional court.

The presidential vote, Syria’s second since war broke call at 2011, is scheduled to be persisted May 26. Syrians abroad will vote on May 20.

Mohamad Jihad Lahham, the president of the Supreme Constitutional Court, said the court accepted the three candidates and rejected the remainder because they didn’t meet the constitutional and legal requirements.

Lahham said that those whose candidacies are rejected have the proper to appeal before the court within three days.

Assad won nearly 90% of the votes within the 2014 elections and is widely expected to win a fourth seven-year term. He has held power since 2000, when he took over after the death of his father, who ran the country for 30 years.

Syria began allowing multi-candidate voting within the 2014 elections. Competition with Assad was symbolic and seen by opposition and western countries as a sham designed to offer the incumbent president the veneer of legitimacy.

The international community is unlikely to acknowledge the legitimacy of the upcoming elections.

According to the UN resolution for a political resolution of the conflict in Syria, a replacement constitution is meant to be drafted and approved during a public referendum before UN-monitored presidential elections are to require place. But little progress has been made on the drafting committee and Assad continues to possess the backing of Russia and Iran.

In March, the Biden administration said it’ll not recognize the results of Syria’s presidential election unless the voting is free, fair, supervised by the United Nations and represents all of Syrian society.

Syria has been within the throes of war since 2011, when protests against the Assad family rule became an armed insurgence in response to a brutal military crackdown.