24 people wishing to be Syria’s president register for June 3 vote

Syria’s supreme constitutional court has received 24 request from people wishing to run for president in the country’s upcoming elections which is due to be held at June 3.

The court will now spend five days examining the 24 hopefuls to see if they meet electoral criteria to run for office in Syria’s first multi-candidate presidential vote.

A maximum of three candidates are expected to figure on the final list.

“At 3:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Thursday May 1, 2014, the period for submitting presidential candidacy ended,” court head Adnan Zureiq said, quoted on state television.

“Twenty-four requests for candidacy for the post of Syrian president” had been submitted and the court would begin work Friday to examine which candidates met electoral criteria.

The results, he said, would be announced within five days.

To add their name on the ballot, candidates must win approval from at least 35 of parliament’s 250 lawmakers, as well as meet criteria including having lived in Syria for the past decade.

The opposition in exile which has been leading a deadly extremist-marked war in the country with more than 150,000 people killed, is banned to participate according to the law.

The Baath party headed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has 161 deputies in the parliament.

Assad’s would-be challengers include two women and one Christian man.

Syria’s constitution requires that candidates for the presidency be Muslim, but a source in the court said this week that all applications would be received and then examined in line with the rules.

The constitution contains no explicit prohibition on female candidates, but its phrasing implies only male candidates are permitted.

The election will be the first since a constitutional amendment scrapped a system of presidential referendums.