Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change

We now have an English translation for the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change, originally released in Arabic on May 15, 2007.

Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change

The Constitution, drawn up by the government of Hafez al-Assad in 1973, has defined the rules for choosing the president in Article 84 as follows:

1. Candidacy for the presidency is issued by the parliament on the basis of a proposal by the national leadership of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, and then it is presented to the citizens for a referendum.
online dating and online dating - Service Mamboo.com 2. The call for a referendum is made by the Chairman of Parliament.
3. The new president is elected before the expiration of the incumbent president’s term in a period of no less than thirty days and no more than sixty days.
4. The candidate becomes president of the republic by obtaining an absolute majority of the total votes. If he does not receive the majority, Parliament nominates another candidate within one month from the date of the announcement of the results of the first referendum.

This is the basis for the administration of presidential elections whose results are controlled and guaranteed. The ruling party—which was declared to be “the leader of society and state” by Article 8 of the Constitution, and is represented by the party’s national leadership—proposes the candidate, and the Parliament, whose majority is controlled by the ruling party, nominates him. The citizens are deprived of the right to choose. This makes the President a Chairman of the ruling party, not the President of the Syrian people.

The President who is sworn in in this way does not care about the citizens’ views or their needs and desires, nor does he have an interest in realizing achievements that would guarantee their attachment to him. Not to mention that the referendum is accompanied by opulent and wasteful spending of public funds.

The President, which is being elected this way, does not care about the views of citizens and their desires and needs neither he interests in achievements that make them adherent to him. Not to mention the accompanying opulence and waste of public funds in addition to the full utilization of all governmental institutions for the implementation of this formality of election.

The first mandate of the president, regardless of how he ascended to the presidency, has shown the risks of this constitution’s rules. Despite promises of change that were guaranteed by the inaugural address and the slogans of development and modernization that were raised, the outcome of these seven years has been negative and the situation has worsened at all levels. The regime is in isolation from other Arab countries, as well as internationally. Syria is threatened by large and dangerous forces and the Golan Heights is still occupied. The estrangement between the regime and the citizens is deep since the politics of keeping society out of politics continues and popular participation in decision-making is rejected, with an almost total absence of activity on part of the constitutional institutions. Instead some forces and figures outside of these institutions control the decision-making process. The intelligence services have returned to their old oppressive methods that repress basic freedoms through arbitrary arrests, summonses, travel bans, and including the dissolution of women’s organizations and the boards of social and charitable associations as well as the loss of the judiciary’s independence. All of these are what led to the hollowing out of the republican system, the establishment of which has been considered a great achievement for the Syrian people since independence. This has also led to the rapid erosion of economic resources due to inflation, deflation, corruption, and a decline in services (education, health, sanitation, drinking water, environmental protection, etc), not to mention poverty and unemployment, declining living standards, the looting of public funds, deepening favoritism, and differentiation and discrimination between citizens resulting from the regime’s rejection to implement political reform that enshrines the separation of powers, allows for working along institutional lines , leads to the revitalization of parliament and its role in oversight and accountability, and the enshrinement of the independence of the judiciary, the opening of the door for a free press and pluralism of parties and unions that allow for free and honest competition as well as a peaceful rotation of power as an entrance to fruitful and successful economic and administrative reform.

Syrian citizens have waited throughout the first term for the promised reforms that would improve their living conditions and state services, as well as sow stability and tranquility in their lives. They have waited for democratic change that resembles what has happened in many of the countries of the world and a number of Arab countries, most recently in Mauritania. But their wait was long and unsuccessful and has led them to despair and hopelessness, not forgetting humility and the loss of dignity that results when they are coerced into voting in various ways.

The issue raised by the forthcoming referendum is that the authority ignores the political, social, and cultural changes—national and international—that no longer accept these referendums that belong to the past to a system whose time has ended and which is now a relic of the past whose black effects humanity now seeks to erase.

The forces of the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change, rejecting the continuation of these policies and condemning the regime’s adherence to them as well as its failure to change election rules and methods, announces its boycott of the referendum process.

Long live Syria as a free country with free citizens.

Damascus; May 15, 2007
Secretariat Office of
Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change