By Vestnik Kavkaza
The presidential elections took place in Syria on June 3rd. The current president Bashar Assad won the elections. Representatives of the Russian delegation - Igor Morozov, member of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs, and Anton Lopatin, member of the Russian Central Electoral Committee, commented on the elections.
Igor Morozov, member of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs, said that “the Russian delegation, including deputies of the State Duma and the Federation Council as well as members of the Central Electoral Committee, monitored the elections as international observers. It was one of our important tasks - to see with our own eyes how the elections in Syria proceed, in a country that Russia supported and did not allow military aggression there. The country's government and its president did everything possible to organize the elections. We see how emotional the population and the voters were, who queued at the polling stations from morning. We visited a polling station in Damascus, Artem Igorevich flew to Lattakia and we saw that the population is so tired of the war, of the separation from their relatives who emigrated or live in refugee camps, that they are ready to do everything possible to elect a leader who would defend the interests of the Syrian people in the international arena, who would prevent the bloody slaughter, the civil war and unite the nation. With this mood they came to the polling stations and voted.”
Morozov emphasized the role of Assad as a national leader who managed to preserve his country's statehood in this difficult situation: “There is a war. Almost 2.5 million people, according to the UN, are abroad in refugee camps. One million people have been moved internally. The economy is destroyed. And in this situation, despite the strong pressure from the West, Assad showed that he is a real leader. He preserved the country's statehood. He showed bravery, he does not allow the military conflict to spread to the provinces. I think he really needed those elections. Now it is a serious signal to the international community to reconsider the Syrian conflict. They sent a signal that Assad is the leader, that he represents the majority of the population and he is ready for an international dialogue. It is clear that it is difficult to stop the civil war, but there is no doubt that it is necessary to prepare a new format of Geneva-3.”
Anton Lopatin, member of the Russian Central Electoral Committee, said that “the popularity of Assad is so high that even the supporters of the other candidates knew it and understood that the other candidates stood no chance. It is connected to the popularity of Bashar Assad. During the elections I was in Lattakia with observers from the other countries. There were about 15 countries, including representatives from the US and Canada. The observers, even from those countries, had no questions about the elections. The Russian delegation visited about 30 polling stations.”
