Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has issued a decree for a referendum on a new draft constitution that ends nearly 50 years of single-party rule in the country. The move will enable political parties other than the ruling Baath Party to contest in democratic elections, the state media reported on Wednesday.
The Syrian state television reported that the decree sets February 16 as the date for the vote on the new constitution, which proclaims freedom as "a sacred right" and allows a multi-party democratic system. It also ensures that the country's new political system is based on political pluralism as well as free and fair democratic elections.
The state television report, however, did not provide further details about the new constitution due to be put to vote. Nevertheless, media reports citing officials said the unique status given to the Baath Party as the "leader of state and society" under the earlier version has been removed.
That new constitution would enforce Islamic case law in the country and prohibit political parties based on religion. It also states that the Syrian president must be a Muslim who is over the age of 40.
"When the new constitution is approved, Syria will have passed the most important stage of laying down the constitutional and legal structure through the reforms and laws that have already been issued to take the country to a new era in co-operation with all spectrum of the Syrian people," the state-run SANA news agency quoted Assad as saying.
Assad has been in power in Syria for the last 11 years since the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who ruled the Arab country for more than three decades. Although Assad promised several reforms after coming to power, his failure to implement them had triggered a popular unrest in Syria last March.
At the beginning of the unrest inspired by the 'Arab Spring' uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, the opposition activists were only demanding the implementation of political and economic reforms. Now they are demanding the immediate ouster of Assad in wake of the deaths of thousands in security operations to quell the unrest.
The UN estimates that more than 5,400 people have died in Syria since pro-democracy protests began last March. The Assad regime, however, blames "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign mercenaries for the violence in the country.
Reports emerging from Syria indicate the regime is continuing to use tanks and hundreds of heavily-armed troops in military operations to put down the unrest in Homs as well as several other Syrian cities and towns.
It is not clear how the Syrian government intends to hold the referendum in the present security scenario, which appears to be deteriorating on a daily basis. Moreover, the opposition had rejected the referendum as a ploy of the Syrian government to divert international attention from the ongoing brutal suppression of the unrest.
Currently, Russia is attempting to mediate talks between the Syrian regime and opposition after Moscow and Beijing vetoed a UN resolution endorsing an Arab League plan for Syria when it was voted on at the UN Security Council on February 4. In October, the two nations had jointly vetoed a Western resolution condemning repression in Syria.
Notwithstanding past refusals by China and Russia to punish the Assad regime at the UN over its continued repression, the EU, the U.S. and Turkey have imposed several rounds of sanctions on the regime. The US and the EU has already indicated that they aim to slam the Assad regime with tighter sanctions in wake of the Chinese and Russian vetoes in the recent UNSC vote.
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