Syrians voted yesterday on a new constitution in the face of opposition calls for a boycott and deadly violence that Washington has said made the exercise “laughable.”
The changes are cosmetic, only Mr Assad’s ouster will suffice after months of repression by his security forces which left 7,600 people dead
The new text ends the legal basis for the five-decade stranglehold on power of the ruling Baath party but leaves huge powers in the hands of President Bashar al-Assad.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, warned there was “every possibility” that Syria could descend into a civil war which could be worsened by foreign intervention. The opposition says the changes are cosmetic and that only Mr Assad’s ouster will suffice after 11 months of repression by his security forces that human rights groups say have left more than 7,600 people dead.
On Saturday alone, 98 people were killed, 72 of them civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
As polling was under way, the Britain-based watchdog reported new violence around the country that left at least 16 civilians and 14 security force personnel dead.
In the central city of Homs – under assault by regime forces for more than three weeks – shelling resumed of the rebel district of Baba Amr, dashing Red Cross hopes of a lull to allow the evacuation of two wounded Western journalists.
France’s Interior Minister Claude Gueant warned it was “medically urgent” to get wounded French reporter Edith Bouvier out of the besieged district. However, Syrian state TV aired live footage from a number of polling stations around the country and reported that “large number of voters” had turned out. Many voters did not bother to use the special booths, instead showing everyone their choice of “yes” to the new charter. Outside, crowds gathered brandishing Syrian flags as pro-Assad anthems blared from loudspeakers.
In Homs, no voting appeared to be taking place, activist Hadi Abdullah said after touring parts of the city where rebels are active.
“There are no people in the streets. Everything is shut, and there is not a single polling station,” he said.
Foreign journalists have very limited freedom of movement in Syria because of stringent restrictions imposed by the authorities.
Mr Assad unveiled the proposed new national charter earlier this month, in the latest step in what he says is a cautious process of reform. Damascus’s allies, Beijing and Moscow, which have blocked action against the regime at the UN Security Council, have expressed support for the process. But White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “It’s actually quite laughable – it makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution.
Drawn up by a committee of 29 people appointed by Assad, the new charter would drop the highly controversial Article 8 in the existing charter, which makes the president’s Baath party “the head of state and society.” Instead, the new political system would be based on “pluralism,” although it would ban the formation of parties on religious lines.
Under the new charter, the President would keep his grip on broad powers, as he would still name the premier and government and, in some cases, could veto legislation. Article 88 states that the president can be elected for two seven-year terms, but Article 155 says these conditions only take effect after the next election for a head of state, set for 2014.
The Assad regime could therefore theoretically stay at the helm for another 16 years.