Syrians go to the polls next Sunday. Beyond empty rhetoric, there is not much to hope for. Omayma Abdel-Latif writes from Damascus The office of Mohamed Radwan Al-Masry, an independent candidate running for parliamentary elections next Sunday, shows hardly any signs of an election battle. His two rooms off Alhamr street in downtown Damascus are dominated by two life-size portraits of President Bashar Al-Assad and a small poster of Al-Masry himself. Boxes of electoral propaganda material are stacked in the corridor. Al-Masry, in his mid-40s, is running under the banner of "young leadership", but his two-page electoral statement speaks a different language. It heaps praise on President Al-Assad: "We will be walking behind the brave leader, the hope of our nation and we will prove to the world that we stand by our leadership,". Empty rhetoric aside, there is hardly any attempt to offer a serious electoral platform which addresses key issues to Syrian voters. The statements only highlight some issues Al-Masry, who served one term in the assembly, promises to address when elected. Reinforcing national unity, improving living standards, reducing unemployment and reinforcing the rule of law. Al-Masry, nonetheless and just like the thousands of other candidates, does not seem to be offering the Syrian electorate much to hope for. The propaganda posters plastered on the streets of Damascus are just vague slogans. "Vote for the faithful son of Damascus," says one poster. "Vote for young talent and leadership," shouts another. Official figures claim there are 10,000 candidates contesting this year's election. While the majority of them are independents, the rest are members of the Progressive Nationalist Front (PNF), a coalition of the Baath Party and nine other parties formed in 1970 which has ruled Syria ever since. The PNF members occupy 167 seats in the 250-seat parliament. Of those 167 seats, 131 seats are allocated to the Baath Party alone. The remaining 36 seats are shared amongst the nine parties in the alliance. PNF candidates get selected by a partisan committee; their "election" is a forgone conclusion. The selection criteria are based on loyalty to party line as well as a clean political record at the security organs. The remaining 83 seats -- less than one-third of the assembly -- are up for grabs among independent candidates. It was not until 1990 that independents were allowed to run for parliamentary elections in Syria. This step was viewed as an attempt to give a gloss of legitimacy and representation to the assembly. Independent candidates divide themselves into different electoral lists, but these lists do not necessarily reflect an ideological difference. The most prominent electoral list is Al-Sham. It includes major businessmen, professionals, former MPs as well as religious figures. Al-Fayehaa, Al-Basha'er and the Development and Change are others. Mohieddin Haboush, a top businessman in tourism and a candidate of Al-Sham said his list was meant to reflect the diversity of Syrian society. "We are not opposition and we are not from the PNF but we represent different trends within Syrian society," said Haboush, who served two terms in the assembly. He pointed out that the two most important issues his platform will address are the high rates of unemployment and the rising cost of living. Haboush, like most independent candidates who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly, said facing the external threats against Syria was the number one priority. National fears make any talk about political or democratic reform or concrete steps to relieve economic and social pressures seem irrelevant, they imply. But this makes the elections a non-event. Until the mid-1990s there were punitive measures for non-voters. When these ended, voter turnout dropped to 4-10 per cent according to unofficial figures. While state employees and Baath Party members are sure to be used to the polling stations, most Syrians just don't bother. To be fair, the government has introduced few procedural changes to ensure a fair election, including limiting financial spending on campaigning to three million Syrian Lira ($60,000) and the use of transparent ballot boxes. But as was the case with previous elections, this one will not be conducted under judicial supervision. Polling stations are supervised by a committee of three civil servants who pledge an oath before a judge to undertake their mission "in honesty and fairness". The law also stipulates that 50 per cent of the assembly members should be workers and farmers. Haboush, like other candidates, was dismissive of the view that the assembly's role in shaping the legislative agenda is insignificant. He blamed the media which, in his own words, "does not correctly represent the role and activities of the assembly". For most Syrians, however, the issue goes beyond the problem of under- reporting the assembly's activities, as Haboush and other candidates want to believe. The popular apathy reflects a deeply rooted cynicism about the electoral process and any real role the assembly could play in shaping the legislative agenda and politics in Syria. Even some members of the PNF alliance share this popular perception. "The tasks assigned to the assembly are reduced to examining the draft laws submitted by the cabinet," said Youssef Al-Faisal, head of the Syrian Communist Party, one of the nine parties in alliance with the Baath Party. Most of the time, he continued, those laws are passed with hardly any modification despite the different remarks made by the MPs. Al-Faisal said that for the assembly to play a bigger role in Syrian politics, its relationship with the cabinet should be addressed so as to give it some powers. The Syrian constitution limits the powers of the assembly to reviewing cabinet statements and policies. While the assembly statute allows 10 deputies to propose draft laws, this remains on paper only. It is for this reason that the Syrian opposition decided to boycott this year's parliamentary elections. The changes introduced to the electoral process fell far short of the opposition's long-standing demands. The opposition, led by the National Democratic Coalition (NDC) and the Damascus Declaration bloc -- an alliance of 16 political parties -- says it has a national project for democratic and peaceful change. It has long demanded a new law for elections and political parties. The opposition expects a popular boycott on a large scale. "The transparent ballot boxes are no guarantor that the election will be fair and free," said Hassan Abdul-Azeem, head of the NDC and a former MP. "The big question is not about the assembly elections but about how long Syria will remain immune to political changes taking place in other Arab countries, from the minor political reforms in Egypt and the collapse of the authoritarian regime in Iraq to the real power transfer which took place in Mauritania," Abdul-Azeem said.
