Jumblat: Syrian Elections Demonstrated the 'Art of Democracy' to the World

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat criticized on Thursday the Syrian presidential elections with a caustic and sarcastic statement, noting the regime's bloody crackdown against the people and the international community's disappointing stances towards the Syrian people.

He said sarcastically: “The regime could have achieved better results in the glittering, diverse, transparent, and democratic elections, had the dead, which exceeded 200,000, and displaced, who exceed eight million, been able to cast their votes.”

“The residents of Homs and Aleppo could have been able to renew their eternal loyalty to Mr. President Bashar Assad were it not for the rubble and destruction in those cities,” he added.

“They would have been able to head to the polls were it not for the corpses and remains of hundreds of thousands of victims, who ironically died for the regime,” he continued in the same tone.

“The residents of the eastern Ghouta and northern Syria would have been able to take part in the elections were it not for the regime's barrel bombs and occasional use of chemical weapons,” remarked Jumblat sarcastically.

“The residents would have been able to teach the West how elections are organized and how free and honest voting is held,” he added.

“The regime would not have been able to stage the most honest elections in the history of mankind had the international community not let down the Syrian people and stood idly by as the they were oppressed, displaced, and bombarded by Assad as part of his preparations for the free, diverse, and democratic elections,” said the PSP chief.

“The Syrian people would not have been able to express themselves with freedom, dignity, and democracy without world powers taking their time in five star hotels in strenuously phrasing the most strongly-worded statements of condemnation,” he commented.

On this note, the MP “proposed gathering these statements and compiling them in the most luxurious book for future generations to use as a reference for phrases of condemnation.”

“What a sparkling election indeed, which radiated freedom and democracy. The election should be used as blueprint for all peoples of the earth,” he added.

“The world should learn the art of elections, voting, the counting of ballots” from the Syrian presidential polls, concluded Jumblat.

Assad was re-elected in a landslide, officials said Wednesday, capturing a third seven-year term in the middle of a bloody three-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. Laham said 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.

Voting was held only in government-controlled areas, excluding huge tracks of northern and eastern Syria that are in rebel hands. The opposition and its Western allies, including the United States, have denounced the election as a farce.

M.T.