Syria announces first presidential candidate

Syria has announced the name of its first presidential candidate in the country’s upcoming election scheduled to be held in June.

The Syrian parliament speaker, Mohammad al-Lahham, made the announcement on Wednesday.

“We have received information from the higher constitutional court that member of parliament, Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar, has filed his candidacy for the post of president of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Lahham added.

According to Syrian state television, Hajjar, 43, is from the northern city of Aleppo and is a member of the Syrian Communist Party.

This comes shortly after the Syrian Foreign Ministry said it would not allow foreign interference in Syria’s election process.

On April 21, Damascus announced it would hold presidential election on June 3 and 4.

Under the country’s constitution, the presidential election should be held up to three months before the end of Bashar al-Assad’s presidency. Assad’s seven-year presidential term ends in July.

Bashar al-Assad took office in 2000, after the death of his father and former Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad. He is expected to stand for a third term.

The presidential election in Syria comes as the country has been gripped with deadly violence since March 2011. Over 150,000 people have reportedly lost their lives and millions of others have been displaced as a result of the country’s battle against foreign-backed militants.

Reports show that the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.