SYRIA: Syrian voters arrived at polling centres to take part in a referendum on the country's new constitution

Record ID: 280308

  • Title: SYRIA: Syrian voters arrived at polling centres to take part in a referendum on the country's new constitution
  • Date: 27th February 2012
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (FEBRUARY 26, 2012) (REUTERS) DAMASCUS GOVERNMENT BUILDING SIGN ON THE BUILDING PEOPLE VOTING EMPLOYEE REGISTERING HIS IDENTITY CARDS PEOPLE VOTING PEOPLE GATHERING IN SABA' BAHRAT SQUARE IN DAMASCUS AND A LARGE PICTURE OF SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD YOUNG WOMAN PUTTING SYRIA'S FLAG ON HER SHOULDERS AND DANCING PEOPLE DURING THE DEMONSTRATION
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9V1CFE6WUJF865I21AU6U01HJ
  • Story Text: Syrian voters arrived at polling centres on Sunday (February 26) to take part in a referendum on the country's new constitution.
    More than 14,000 centres will be available for people in different Syrian cities.
    Meanwhile a pro-Assad demonstration was staged in the capital Damascus The new constitution would drop an article making Assad's Baath party the leader of state and society, allow for political pluralism and enact a presidential limit of two seven-year terms. Activists leading the revolt against four decades of Assad family rule have called for a boycott.
    In Damascus and suburbs where troops drove out insurgents last month, activists say they will try to hold protests near polling centres and burn copies of the new constitution.
    The authorities have held two referendums since Bashar inherited power from his late father 12 years ago. The first installed him as president in 2000 with an official 97.29 percent 'yes' vote and the second renewed his term seven years later with 97.62 percent of the vote.
    The authorities have touted the referendums as the ultimate exercise of what they termed popular democracy.
    "Because we love our country and president and we want things to be good and the crisis to end," said Loubna Darwish.
    "This is freedom. Freedom is not killing, hitting or stealing. This is freedom," said Fairouz al-Hussein.
    Dissidents, however, said the referendums were a sham.
    The Syrian government kept up its onslaught on Homs and other towns, with at least 100 killed according to human rights campaigners on Sunday.
    Forces loyal to Assad killed at least 100 people in Syria on Saturday (February 25) in a fourth week of bombardments on the central city of Homs and assaults on towns and villages in northern and southern provinces, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said.
    Six women and 10 children were among those killed, the opposition activists' organisation, which documents what it describes as killings by loyalist forces, said in a statement.
    It added that the dead included 44 people in Homs and the surrounding countryside, which has been under sustained shelling for more than three weeks.
    END
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