Syrian Kurds boycott presidential elections

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The autonomous administration of Syria's Kurdish-controlled northern regions and the main Kurdish parties in Syria are boycotting the country’s presidential elections that took place on Wednesday.

Polling stations opened Wednesday across Syria for an election expected to return President Bashar al-Assad for a fourth term in office, AFP reported.

According to the official Syrian government outlet SANA, the government’s Higher Judicial Committee for Elections said there is a high turnout.

Elections are not being held in areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria nor in areas held by rebel groups in the northwest.

In northeast Syria, ballot boxes were only set up in military zones controlled by the Syrian government in Hasakah and Qamishlo.

Mustafa Mashaykh, a member of the Syrian Democratic Council’s (SDC) Leadership Committee, told Kurdistan 24 that there have been elections in Syria for 50 years and there have been no changes.

“The surprising thing for people is that we have the same elections even during war within the last 10 years that the country has been destroyed,” he said.

“It’s really something I cannot believe. As the SDC, we do not pay any attention or recognize these elections,” he said. “These elections are held by a regime that rejects a political solution and prefers a military solution."

The SDC, the political counterpart to the SDF, said in a statement they have attempted to negotiate with the authorities in Damascus before, without results. “It was hindering consensus and obstructing the continuation of the meetings, and its aim was to impose its vision without regard for human rights,” the body said.

Therefore, the SDC said they would not be part of any elections in Syria before there is a political solution, the release of detainees, and international monitoring to ensure the transparency of the vote.

Elections “should be in a pluralistic democratic atmosphere that recognizes the rights of the Syrian components equally, without discrimination or exclusion,” it said.

The Kurdish National Council (KNC), which is part of the Turkey-based Syrian Arab opposition, rejected the elections and said the Syrian regime continues to follow a “military solution” to the decade-long crisis.

“This regime pursued a despicable racist policy towards our Kurdish people from demographic change to Arabization, and depriving our people of its most basic national rights,” the KNC said. “Because of all these exceptional policies, our Kurdish people joined in the peaceful revolution in their regions.”

“As a member of the opposition and Syrian revolution, we call on the international community to not recognize these elections.”

A civilian who asked to remain anonymous told Kurdistan 24 in Qamishlo that after “all this destruction and killing over the last 10 years, these elections held by the regime that is destroying the country should never be accepted. The whole world is seeing that and these elections are not acceptable to us.”

The foreign ministers of the United States and four major European countries issued a statement on Monday strongly criticizing the vote.

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly