APATHY, LOW TURNOUT MARK LOCAL SYRIAN ELECTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAMASCUS 000909

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

PARIS FOR JORDAN; LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/04/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SY
SUBJECT: APATHY, LOW TURNOUT MARK LOCAL SYRIAN ELECTIONS

REF: A. DAMASCUS 864


B. DAMASCUS381

Classified By: CDA Michael Corbin, for reasons 1.4 b/d.


1. (C) Summary. Lackluster turnout and voter apathy
characterized local elections held throughout Syria on August
26, 27. This round of elections garnered even less attention
than Parliamentary elections earlier this year. Voters had
little choice but to rubberstamp government-approved lists of
candidates dominated by the Ba,ath Party. Local media
focused on inflating voter turnout and trumpeting supposed
&transparency8 while encouraging Syrians to participate.
The opposition Damascus Declaration publicly repeated their
boycott of local elections on August 26. Yet, in isolated
pockets of the country, anti-regime groups tried to present
an alternative. Such candidates, however, were uniformly
defeated almost everywhere. End Summary.


2. (C) LOW TURNOUT AND LACK OF ENTHUSIASM: Voter turnout
appeared to be even lower than for Parliamentary elections,
estimated at 10-20 percent of eligible voters at most by many
observers. Anecdotal observations as well as reports from
journalists, civil society activists and other diplomats
support this assessment. POLOFF visited three polling places
in Damascus. In most cases, campaign workers and
plainclothes internal security agents outnumbered voters.
Diplomatic and press contacts who visited voting sites also
noted lackluster turnout. There were some exceptions,
however. POLOFF observed notable activity at a polling
center in the conservative Sunni neighborhood of Kafer Soseh,
a Damascus suburb. During one half-hour period roughly three
dozen voters arrived, mostly in two service taxi vans that
appeared to be directed to the voting center by campaign
workers. Their bustle of activity appeared to be the clear
exception, however.


3. (U) OFFICIAL MEDIA TOUTS DEMOCRATIC PROCESS: Official
Syria news media painted a very different picture of the
elections, touting high voter turnout, the participation of
women and the democratic nature of the local elections. On
August 29, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
quoted Minister of Local Administration and Environment Hilal
al-Atrash as saying official turnout had reached 49.54
percent of Syria,s nearly eight million eligible voters, up
nearly 12 percent from four years ago. Al-Atrash also
asserted that many more women will be in the local councils
reflecting women,s belief in the need for them to
participate effectively in society. (Note. According to
official statistics, women won a total of 319 out of 9,697
available seats, which were contested by over 30,000
candidates. End Note.)


4. (U) Near the close of elections on August 27, local media
quoted al-Atrash describing &an atmosphere of transparency,
freedom, and democracy.8 In an apparent attempt to get out
the vote, state-run television broadcast election coverage on
August 26 and 27 with live dispatches from polling places
around the country and interviews with government officials
and community leaders. One such official, journalist,
author, and member of Syrian Parliament, Salim Abbud, said
that Syrians should be aware of the &importance of their
role in exercising their democratic right.8


5. (C) SOME OPPOSITION PARTICIPATE: Although the main
opposition force in Syria, the Damascus Declaration,
reiterated their boycott of local elections in a public
statement on August 26, some other opposition groups said
they participated in the elections by putting forward their
own lists. A coalition of the Kurdish Future Movement, the
Kurdish Yekiti Party and the Kurdish Democratic Union backed
a list of independents under a new banner called &the
National Alliance8 in Qamishli, al-Malikiyeh, Ras al-Ein and
other Northeast cities, according to Damascus representative
Hervin Osse of the Kurdish Future Movement. In a statement,
the Kurdish Future Movement announced that their main aim was
to demonstrate that they could participate in local elections
rather than win seats. In addition, Damascus-based Yekiti
lawyer Muhammad Mustafa said many Kurds came out to vote in
support of the National Alliance in Qamishli. Despite the
reported enthusiasm, embassy contacts in the Northeast say
that the only National Alliance candidates to win were those
who were unopposed by other regime-backed &independents8 in
small towns or villages in the Northeast such as Khatunieh or
Darbasieh.

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6. (C) In Sednaya there were reports that a number of former
communists not aligned with the Damascus Declaration
attempted to create their own mixed list which included both
independents and official NFP candidates but favored the
former. Yet, according to embassy contacts, security forces
and Ba,ath party officials intimidated those who tried to
vote for the independent-heavy list. Results clearly showed
that the regime prevented opposition-backed candidates from
winning.


7. (U) BACKGROUND: As previewed in Ref A, on August 26 and 27
local elections were held throughout Syria from the village
to the governate level. Polls opened at 0700 local time on
August 26 and closed at 2000. A second day of voting
occurred on August 27 between 0700 and 1400. (Note. Syrian
election law mandates a second day of voting if there is less
than 51 percent turnout after the first day. End Note.)
Unlike Parliamentary elections, voters were required to vote
in their district of residence, except in Aleppo where the
governor made arrangements for out-of-district voters to cast
their ballots at dedicated centers around the governate. In
most other respects, the structure of the local elections
closely mirrored the Parliamentary elections where candidates
from the Ba,ath-dominated NPF formed lists to capture a
majority of seats in every constituency. The SARG failed to
follow through on earlier promised to abandon the closed list
system which is traditionally used to ensure an NPF ruling
super-majority (ref A).


8. (SBU) The procedures at polling places closely mirrored
Parliamentary elections where voters were approached by a
number of candidate representatives distributing preprinted
lists of government-sanctioned NPF and &independent8
candidates. The independent candidates tended to work with
rather than against the SARG by choosing to add their own
names underneath pre-ordained, NPF-dominated lists (ref B).
(Note. According to diplomatic contacts, the NPF usually
accounted for 70 percent of the candidates on the preprinted
lists. End Note.) The preprinted list often serves as the
ballot cast by individual voters. Legally, voters have the
option to fill a blank ballot but, according to Embassy
contacts, voter intimidation, vote rigging and general
misunderstanding of election rules amongst Syrian voters
leads to few hand-filled ballots cast and even fewer counted.
Although the regime has announced which candidates won,
there have been no official figures on the number of votes
the &winners8 received as of September 4 ) eight days
after the close of polls. Not surprisingly, almost all of
the winners were backed by the regime.


9. (C) Comment. A group of European, U.S., and Canadian
diplomats, which met several times during the year to discuss
both the Parliamentary elections and the Presidential
referendum, came to a consensus view that the 2007 local
elections were characterized by heavy regime control and
widespread apathy. As such, the process followed much the
same pattern as Parliamentary elections and the Presidential
referendum where the regime attempted to pursue two divergent
goals: present an image of democratic reform while and the
same time send the message that there is no alternative to
the regime.
CORBIN