Syrian Cabinet Approves Draft Law on General Elections

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the final formula of the draft law on general elections after detailed discussion of the law’s articles.

The law aims at regulating parliamentary and local council elections and ensuring the safety of electoral process and the right of candidates to supervise the process.

The law provided for forming a Damascus-based judicial committee, called the Higher Committee for Elections, which will take charge of supervising the elections and taking all necessary measures to secure the integrity and freedom of elections.

The committee includes five judges and enjoys full independence.

Judicial sub-committees will be formed in each province, which will be affiliated to the Higher Committee and work under its supervision.

Earlier in the week, the Cabinet also approved the parties draft law in completion of the package of legislations translating on the ground the announced political reform program.

During Tuesday’s session, the Cabinet also approved a draft law on establishing the National Center of Visual Arts at Damascus University, with the aim of contributing to reviving the movement of Syrian plastic art, enriching cultural, educational and social life and improving young artistic talents.

A memo of understanding on cooperation in the field of radio and TV signed between Syria and the Sultanate of Oman was also agreed on.

The Cabinet also agreed on the Central Bank of Syria’s proposal on amending Article 1 of Decision No 66 for 2006 regarding the establishment of the private Islamic bank, Cham Bank.

In a statement to the journalists following the meeting, Minister of Information Dr. Adnan Mahmoud said the draft law on general elections aims at improving the electoral process and making a quantum leap in the democratic life, in accordance with the political parties law, through regulating parliamentary and local council elections in a way that ensures citizens’ selection of their representatives in a free, honest and transparent way.

The Minister added that the draft law provides for judicial monitoring of the electoral process and stressing the principle of equality and the freedom of elections.

Dr. Adnan said that approving the draft law on general elections simultaneously with the draft law on political parties and the new information law in the next stage comes in the framework of implementing the package of reforms announced by the Syrian leadership and the government with the aim of enhancing democracy and public freedoms and engaging all spectrums of the Syrian society in running the state institutions and building the homeland.

For his part, Minister of Local Administration Omar Ibrahim Ghalawanji said the law included 71 articles and the most important amendment stipulates for transferring the supervision of elections from the administrative authority to the juridical authority.

He indicated that the elections in Syria were always monitored by the Interior Ministry while the Ministry of Local Administration was responsible for supervising the local council elections.

The Minister added that the draft law provides for forming the Higher Committee for Elections, in addition to forming juridical sub-committees in the provinces and each sub-committee includes three judges to supervise the eprocess at the electoral centers.

Minister Ghalawanji said the draft law stipulates for establishing electoral centers in the provinces and cities whose population exceed 100,000, in addition to allowing those who got the Syrian citizenship by the Legislative Decree No. 49 to vote and run for the local council membership.

The draft law allows all the will-be-formed parties according to the new political parties law to present their candidates individually or in collective lists, the Minister added.

He said the elections will be conducted publicly, honestly and neutrally in secret rooms and there will be electoral committees to monitor the elections and candidacy committees to receive and examine the candidates’ applications.

Minister of Justice Judge Tayseer Qala Awwad said the law included new articles on prosecuting manipulation of the electoral process.

The new law requires taht the ministries of Justice, Interior and Local Administration to work on automating the elections.

Minister Qala Awwad added that the new law follows the open-list electoral system, highlighting the articles which provide for the freedom of elections, the right to objecting and appealing the electoral committees’ decisions and preventing the use of state employees and money in the favor of certain candidates.

The draft law has developed a new mechanism that allows people with disabilities, blind persons and illiterate ones to vote and explains the mechanism of contesting the elections’ final results in accordance with the new constitutional texts and new laws on establishing administrative judiciary courts in the Syrian provinces.