DAMASCUS: Campaigning for Syria’s June 3 presidential election expected to return Bashar Al Assad to power begins today, the Supreme Constitutional Court said.
The presidential election is theoretically Syria’s first in more than half a century, as Assad and his father Hafez, who ruled with an iron grip from 1970 until his death in 2000, were named after referendums.
Assad’s rivals Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah Al Nuri are largely unknown to the public. Hajjar is from Syria’s second city of Aleppo and is an independent MP and former member of the communist party. Nuri is a Damascus businessman who was a member of the internal opposition tolerated by Assad’s government.
AFP
