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Syria Court Gets 1st Applications for Presidential Vote

Hammouda Al-Sabbagh (C), head of the Syrian People's Assembly, presides over a parliamentary session to discuss upcoming presidential elections, in the capital Damascus, on April 18, 2021. (AFP)
Hammouda Al-Sabbagh (C), head of the Syrian People's Assembly, presides over a parliamentary session to discuss upcoming presidential elections, in the capital Damascus, on April 18, 2021. (AFP)
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Syria Court Gets 1st Applications for Presidential Vote

Hammouda Al-Sabbagh (C), head of the Syrian People's Assembly, presides over a parliamentary session to discuss upcoming presidential elections, in the capital Damascus, on April 18, 2021. (AFP)
Hammouda Al-Sabbagh (C), head of the Syrian People's Assembly, presides over a parliamentary session to discuss upcoming presidential elections, in the capital Damascus, on April 18, 2021. (AFP)

A Syrian court Monday started receiving applications from presidential hopefuls, the state news agency said, for polls next month expected to keep Bashar al-Assad in power in the war-torn country.

Two candidates filed applications with the high constitutional court, state news agency SANA said, a day after the speaker of parliament announced the poll will take place on May 26.

The first was a former lawmaker, while the other had applied for the last presidential elections in 2014, but did not meet the criteria.

They will now have to garner support from at least 35 members of the 250-seat parliament, which is dominated by Assad's Baath party.

Fifty-five-year-old Assad, who succeeded his father in 2000 and has managed to cling on to power through a decade of conflict, has not yet announced his own candidacy.

Presidential hopefuls have until April 28 to put forth their candidacy for the second such vote to be held during the war.

They must have lived continuously in Syria for at least 10 years, meaning that opposition figures in exile are barred from running.

The last presidential elections in 2014 were the first such multi-candidate polls in Syria, but only two other candidates were approved and Assad won with an official 88 percent of the vote.

The government has since won back large parts of the country from opposition and extremist factions.

But Syria is also battling a dire economic crisis compounded by Western sanctions and a financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon.

The war has killed more than 388,000 people since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, but endless rounds of talks have failed to find a political solution.

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Arab World

Syrians Celebrate a Month Since Assad’s Overthrow With Revolutionary Songs in Damascus

People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
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Syrians Celebrate a Month Since Assad’s Overthrow With Revolutionary Songs in Damascus

People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
People stand before the New Clock Tower along Quwatli Street in the center of the city of Homs in west-central Syria on January 8, 2025. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

A packed concert hall in Damascus came alive this week with cheers as Wasfi Maasarani, a renowned singer and symbol of the Syrian uprising, performed in celebration of “Syria’s victory."
The concert Wednesday marked Maasarani’s return to Syria after 13 years of exile. While living in Los Angeles, Maasarani had continued to support Syria’s uprising through his music, touring the US and Europe, The Associated Press said.
The concert organized by the Molham Volunteering Team, a humanitarian organization founded by Syrian students, also marked a month since a lightning insurgency toppled former President Bashar Assad.
Revolutionary songs like those by Maasarani and Abdelbasset Sarout — a Syrian singer and activist who died in 2019 — played a key role in rallying Syrians during the nearly 14-year uprising-turned civil war starting in 2011.
Many opponents of Assad's rule, like Maasarani, had fled the country and were unsure if they would ever be able to come back.
In the dimly lit concert hall, the crowd’s phone lights flickered like stars, swaying in unison with the music as the audience sang along, some wiping away tears. The crowd cheered and whistled and many waved the new Syrian flag, the revolutionary flag marked by three stars. A banner held up in the hall read, “It is Syria the Great, not Syria the Assad.”
One of Maasarani's best known songs is “Jabeenak ’Ali w Ma Bintal,” which he first sang in 2012, addressing the Free Syrian Army. It was a coalition of defected Syrian military personnel and civilian fighters formed in 2011 to oppose Assad during the civil war.
“You free soldier, the Syrian eminence appears in his eyes, he refused to fire at his people, he refused the shame of the traitor army, long live you free army, protect my people and the revolutionaries,” the lyrics read.
Another banner in the audience read, “It is the revolution of the people and the people never fail.”
Between performances, Raed Saleh, the head of the civil defense organization known as the White Helmets, addressed the crowd, saying, “With this victory, we should not forget the families who never found their children in the prisons and detention centers.”
Thousands were tortured or disappeared under Assad’s government. After the fall of Assad, the White Helmets helped in the search for the missing.
After the concert, Maasarani told The Associated Press, “It’s like a dream” to return to Syria and perform his revolutionary songs.
“We were always singing them outside of Syria, experiencing the happy and sad moments from afar,” he said, adding that his role was to capture the atrocities on the ground through song, ensuring “they would be remembered in history.” He reflected on his years in exile and recalled surviving two assassination attempts before leaving Syria.
“We have not seen this state without Assad since I was born,” said Alaa Maham, a concert attendee who recently returned from the United Arab Emirates. “I cannot describe my feelings, I hope our happiness lasts.”
The future of Syria is still unclear, as the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, now the de facto ruling party, begins to form a new government and rebuild the country's institutions.
Whatever comes next, Maham said, “We got rid of the oppression and corruption with the fall of Assad and his family’s rule."