Assad’s re-election bid begins

DAMASCUS — In the heart of Syria’s devastated city of Homs, once hailed as the “capital of the revolution,” President Bashar al-Assad looks down from a banner calling for his re-election.
“Because you are a symbol of our victory and our resistance, we implore you to be a candidate for the presidency,” reads the caption beneath the smiling Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than four decades.

In the early months of Syria’s uprising, Homs was the epicentre of peaceful mass protests sweeping the country.
Three years on much of it lies in ruin, with small pockets of rebels clinging to a few besieged neighbourhoods.

But in pro-regime neighbourhoods the campaign for Assad’s re-election has begun, despite the fact that he has not yet announced his candidacy.
A constitution adopted in 2012 for the first time opened the door for candidates to challenge Assad in the election, scheduled to be held before June.

But a law adopted by parliament on Thursday requires candidates to have lived in Syria for the past 10 years, thereby excluding the exiled Western- and Arab-backed opposition.

It’s unclear how an election can be held in the middle of a raging civil war that has killed 146 000 people and displaced an estimated 40 percent of Syrians from their homes. But a few blocks away from the Assad banner, signed “Family Restaurant,” another banner announces that the employees of Al-Waari digital printing and its calligrapher, Fadi Hassan, implore Assad to run.

“We promise with our blood to be loyal to you,” it proclaims. — AFP.