An
the election campaign began in war-torn Syria, President Bashar Assad is
about to face two other candidates linked to opposition groups
recognized by the government: Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar, an ex-Communist
Party activist and lawmaker, and Hassan Abdullah Nouri, a liberal
businessman who previously headed the nation’s chamber of industry.



Dr. Taleb Ibrahim,
Deputy Director of Damascus center for International and Strategic
Studies, expressed his opinion on the current political balance in Syria
and on the upcoming elections during his interview with VoR.Now, Doctor, what is the balance of political forces in Syria right now?

The
political forces in Syria are merely divided into two parties – the
Loyalist party or the loyalist section and the opposition. The
opposition, which is I’m talking about it now, it is political
opposition. I am not talking about militants, because all of militants
were fighting the Syrian government in Syria. Indeed, terroristic group.
The main two parties in Syria are, as I said to you, al-Assad, forces,
which are backing him. Ba’ath Party, the National Syrian Party and other
parties in addition to some civil society powers, some religious
minorities and some very important section Syrian Arab population are
backing President Assad. On the other hand, some forces are backing the
political opposition, which is mainly consist of some Communist parties,
popular front, who are working in Syria.Well,
ok, it seems that numerous media reports say that President Assad is
widely expected to win in the coming elections. And I believe he is just
allotted to that. In your opinion, can he be described as an
overwhelming favorite?I think that the
ex-President Assad should be reelected again for a new presidential
period, because even if you look at the poles of some research centers
which is very close to the United States, such as a Doha Center. One
year age they made a pole and in this they found the popularity of
President Assad is about 60 percent of the total people of Syria. So, we
expect ex-President Assad will be the President for another period and
the opposition, political opposition will play a very important role in
the Syrian political life. After the elections we are going to a new
Syria. Nothing will remain as it now, or as it was in the past. We are
very sure of launching a new democratic period in Syria.Let’s
just talk in theory. And if President Assad loses the elections, what
about these other two gentlemen? Would they change the course of the
internal politics inside Syria?If President
Bashar Assad loses the election, of course we will have a new president,
one of the other two guys. We don’t think that there will be a severe
or a very great change in Syrian politics regards to regional area. I
think there will be something related to the expertise, because
President Assad has a very long expertise in policy and he knows very,
very well all the files – regional files or international files. But we
think that Syria will remain the same policy, because the policy of
President Assad is to share the external policy. It is not a personal
policy, this is the policy of Syrian people. So, it is not expected
these politics to be changed all to find a very great change in Syrian
policy regards to its neighborhood, or to international community.I
see. So, Doctor, you previously mentioned that the Doha Center, which
does have some connections to America. It gave the results of a poll
that said that roughly 60 percent of Syrians did support President
Bashar al-Assad. Now, in your opinion, is this correct? Is this, what
really Syrians feel. Have there been any other opinion polls on this
subject?I think, I’m living in Syria and I know
Syrian people very, very well, all social classes. I visited every city
and every region in Syria. I can see as the majority of Syrian people,
the majority and over then 70 percent now, they are backing President
Assad. They see President Assad as a hero, because he fought the Western
projects for the area. He is fighting for the independence of his
people. And now President Assad is fighting all of these. I am sure that
President Assad will win and Syrian people will back him.





This was also stated in the NATO report of last year (www.worldtribune.com/2013/05/31/nato-data-assad-winning-the-)




I hope Assad wins with 70%, cause this is a big FU to the west. They expect it t be like 99% because 'its an undemocratic election. LOL!

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