SYRIA’S EMBATTLED PRESIDENT Bashar Assad has decreed a law allowing his political opponents to freely form political parties for the first time in decades.
The under-fire Assad’s ruling Baath party has led the country since overthrowing its former military rulers in 1963, and currently enjoys a constitutional status as the ‘leader of society and the state’.
Before now, other parties were only allowed to register themselves if they acknowledge the supreme role of the Baath and join its coalition, the National Progressive Front.
Parties which opposed the Baath’s special status were therefore barred from forming, and were limited to operating on a more clandestine basis.
State news agency SANA reported that the draft legislation was “aimed at enriching political life, creating a new dynamic and allowing for a change in political power”.
“The bill stipulates the essential objectives and principles governing the activities of parties, conditions for their establishment [...] and rules relating to their financing, their rights and their obligations.”
Because the law is being passed by decree, it does not require parliamentary approval to take effect, and thus comes into effect immediately.
Even if parliamentary supported was needed, it would easily have been secured as the National Progressive Front controls 169 of the 250 seats in the People’s Council. The Baath party holds 134 of those seats, meaning it could force a majority all by itself if needed.
AP reported that the concession is a relatively significant one and bows to the demands of protesters who have been demonstrating since March in pursuit of a more pluralist society.
France has slammed the decree as a “provocation”, however, with foreign minister Alain Juppe telling French radio that Assad’s administration should instead be ending “the violence against the civilian population, which is only defending its rights”.
The announcement is being interpreted as a response to the UN Security Council’s condemnation of the violence which has gripped the country for over four months now.
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