Assad´s new Strategy

[Bleipriester]

An interesting new war strategy has been implemented by the Syrian gov´t.
The Army only holds strategic important key points, while the population has been armed and trained to hold their towns. Tens of thousands of volunteers secure their hometowns against rebels. This is reported by Der Spiegel.
Syrien: Assad kann gegen die Rebellen wichtige Erfolge verzeichnen - SPIEGEL ONLINE

 

[waltky]

Anybody doubt the outcome of the vote?...

SYRIA'S ASSAD TO SEEK RE-ELECTION IN JUNE VOTE
Apr 28,`14 -- Syrian President Bashar Assad declared his candidacy Monday for a new seven-year term in June presidential elections, more than three years into a revolt against his rule that has killed more than 150,000 people, uprooted another 9 million and touched off a humanitarian crisis.

While Assad had long suggested he would seek re-election, the official announcement put to rest any illusions that the man who has led Syria since 2000 has any intention of relinquishing power or finding a political solution to the conflict. Rather, he appears emboldened by a series of military victories in recent months that have strengthened his once tenuous grip on power. The Syrian opposition and its Western allies have denounced the June 3 election as a sham designed to lend Assad, who is widely expected to win, a patina of electoral legitimacy. And it remains unclear how the government intends to hold any kind of credible vote when the country is engulfed in a civil war.

Vast areas of the country, including most of northern Syria, lie outside government control. Hundreds of thousands of people live in territory that is either contested, held by rebels or blockaded by pro-government forces. More than 2.5 million people have fled the country. The government has presented the ballot box as the solution to the conflict: If the people choose Assad in the election, the fight should end; if Assad loses, he will gracefully step aside.

Assad officially registered his candidacy Monday at the Supreme Constitutional Court, said Parliament Speaker Jihad Laham on state television. The statement was followed by blaring broadcasts of nationalistic music praising God. State TV also ran a brief biography of Assad, and quoted him as asking Syrians not to resort to celebratory gunfire. The ruling Baath Party, to which Assad belongs, called his candidacy a "national necessity and a popular interest."

Last month, the Syrian parliament approved an electoral law opening the door to other candidates, although the bill placed conditions effectively ensuring that almost no opposition figures would be able to run. It states that any candidate must have lived in Syria for the past 10 years and cannot have any other citizenship. So far, six other presidential hopefuls have declared their candidacies, but analysts dismiss them as little more than stooges to provide a veneer of democratic legitimacy. "He is the seventh contender, but realistically he is the only contender," Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said of Assad. "The others were part of the decoration process to give the impression that the Syrian presidential elections this time will be different."

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[Bleipriester]

Anybody doubt the outcome of the vote?...

SYRIA'S ASSAD TO SEEK RE-ELECTION IN JUNE VOTE
Apr 28,`14 -- Syrian President Bashar Assad declared his candidacy Monday for a new seven-year term in June presidential elections, more than three years into a revolt against his rule that has killed more than 150,000 people, uprooted another 9 million and touched off a humanitarian crisis.

Its really the best for Syria and the whole world if Assad remains in office. And having autonomic places controlled by jihadi terrorists surrounding Europe does not meany any positive change. It just makes them stronger.

The elections will also show the risen respect for President Assad due to his and his´ government behavior during the war. The gov´t is the largest helper for the refugees. Millions of refugees escaped to the government controlled areas and will participate in the elections. The gov´t also delivers food to areas it doesn´t control.

 

[waltky]

Was there any doubt of the outcome??...

Syria's Assad wins presidential vote in landslide
Jun 4,`14 -- Syrian President Bashar Assad has been re-elected in a landslide, officials said Wednesday, capturing another seven-year term in the middle of a bloody 3-year-old uprising against his rule that has devastated the country.

Syria's parliament speaker, Jihad Laham, announced the final results from Tuesday's election, saying Assad garnered 10,319,723 votes, or 88.7 percent. Assad's two challengers, Hassan al-Nouri and Maher Hajjar, won 4.3 percent and 3.2 percent respectively. The Supreme Constitutional Court put turnout at 73.42 percent. Assad's victory was always a foregone conclusion, despite the presence of other candidates on the ballot for the first time in decades. The opposition and its Western allies denounced the election as a farce, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling it a "great big zero."

Damascus erupted into a thunderous, rolling clap of celebratory gunfire that appeared to include heavy weaponry after the results were announced. Thousands of Assad supporters flocked the streets to celebrate, some waving large Syrian flags and others carrying photos of Assad as car horns blared. Some men broke into the familiar pro-Assad chant: "With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Bashar!" Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen television aired live footage from the government stronghold of Latakia and the war-ravaged city of Homs, which the government recaptured last month, showing crowds of people celebrating with flags and posters of Assad amid cries of "God, Syria, Bashar!" Fireworks lit up the night sky in Latakia.

Voting was held only in government-controlled areas, excluding huge tracks of northern and eastern Syria that are in rebel hands. Tens of thousands of Syrians abroad voted last week, although many of the more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees across the region either abstained or were excluded by law. The vote provided no respite from the war. As people filed to the polls in Damascus on Tuesday, the rumble of government shelling and airstrikes on rebellious suburbs provided an ominous backdrop and sobering reminder that not all Syrians were able to cast their ballots. That did nothing to diminish the enthusiasm of Assad's supporters, for whom the election victory provided a boost amid a war that has touched every family on both sides of the divide.

The win also provides further evidence that the Syrian leader has no intention of relinquishing power, making a protracted conflict the likely outcome in fighting that has already lasted three years and killed more than 160,000 people. Assad's hold on power was not always so secure. Just over a year ago, his grip was slipping as vast swaths of the country fell to the surging rebels. But Assad's troops - bolstered by allies Iran, Russia and the Lebanese Shiite militant Hezbollah - managed over the past year to turn the tide, and even wrest back some of the ground lost. For the first time in decades, there were multiple candidates on Syria's presidential ballot. In previous elections, Assad, and before him his father, Hafez Assad, were elected in single-candidate referendums in which voters cast yes-no ballots. In both Syria's 2000 and 2007 elections, Assad garnered 97 percent yes votes.

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