Syrians Vote in Referendum on New Constitution amid Boycott, Violence

Syrians were voting on Sunday 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 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.

The opposition says the changes are cosmetic and that only 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.

Assad and his wife, Asma, struggled to reach the voting center at the headquarters of state-owned television and radio, as cheering employees crowded to greet them, in footage aired on Syrian television.

"Allah, Syria and Bashar only," chanted the crowds to a beaming Assad as the first lady waved to onlookers.

The couple went together behind the booth curtain where voters are supposed to make their choices in privacy, before casting their ballots.

"The attack on us is a media assault," he said addressing the crowds on the staircase, apparently referring to a continuous coverage by Arab satellite channels of his forces' deadly crackdown on protests.

"It is true that media is important, but it does not beat reality," he said.

As polling was under way, activists reported new violence around the country that left 34 civilians and 14 security force personnel dead.

Syrian state television aired live footage from a number of polling stations around the country and reported that "large number of voters" had turned out. Voting is due to end at 07:00 pm (1700 GMT).

"I am voting because this is the outcome of reforms introduced by the president, and if they succeed we will have a democracy, not like in Libya and elsewhere," Balsam Kahila, 32, told Agence France Presse after voting in Damascus at the finance ministry where she works.

Asked whether she thought it was right to hold the referendum as the bloodshed continues, she said: "I am voting in spite of the armed gangs," using the regime's term to refer to rebel fighters and mutinous troops.

Many voters did not bother to use the special booths, instead showing everyone their choice of "yes" to the new charter.

Outside at the main Seven Fountains Square, large crowds gathered brandishing Syrian flags as pro-Assad anthems blared from loudspeakers.

In the southwestern city of Sweida, heartland of the Druze minority, one voter said she voted without hesitation in favor of the new constitution, although she said it was not enough.

"We're not stupid. We know that the new text does not meet the aspirations of the people, but voting is a message to support stability and reject the civil war that threatens our country," she said.

Khaled, a 37-year-old lawyer, said: "In theory, the new constitution ... opens the way to a multi-party system and to a democratic transition ... The real political battle now is to force those in power to respect the text."

In Homs, no voting appeared to be taking place, activist Hadi Abdullah told AFP 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.

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' allies, Beijing and Moscow, which have blocked action against the regime at the U.N. Security Council, have expressed support for the process.

"We hope that the referendum on a new constitution as well as the forthcoming parliamentary elections pass off calmly," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun said in Damascus earlier this month.

But White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "It's actually quite laughable -- it makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution.

"Promises of reforms have usually been followed by an increase in brutality and have never been delivered upon by this regime since the beginning of peaceful demonstrations in Syria."

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.

Assad could therefore theoretically stay at the helm for another 16 years.

Syria specialist Thomas Pierret has said that regardless of the changes, the type of political system is of little relevance in a country "dominated by the intelligence service."

"Nothing indicates that this would change under the current regime," said Pierret, lecturer on Islam and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Edinburgh.