Syrian Referendum: Voices Behind the Vote

Away from official results and declarations, Al-Akhbar correspondents examine proceedings of the constitutional referendum on the ground and the mood of Syrians from all stripes in this detailed round-up on polling day in Damascus, its surrounding areas, and Aleppo.

President Bashar Assad chose to cast his vote in Syria’s constitutional referendum Sunday at the headquarters of state television.

He explained why in a brief address afterwards. “The attack against us is a media attack. They may have the media, but that cannot change reality,” he said.

“They may be more powerful in space,” he mused, in reference to hostile Arab satellite TV channels, adding, “But we are stronger on the ground...and in any case, we will win both on the ground and in space.”

Assad’s optimism was apparently shared by many of the Syrians voters who took part in the plebiscite, called to approve a replacement for the 1973 constitution as part of the regime’s promised package of reforms. A total of 14,185 polling stations were reportedly opened throughout Syria for this purpose.

Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar announced that polling went smoothly in most parts of the country and that turnout was 57 percent, with 89.4 percent of voters in favor.

Doubts on the Streets

But some Damascenes remained skeptical and worried.

“Why am I not optimistic about the constitutional referendum?” a Damascus shopkeeper asked when queried on the morning of the vote. “Wait until tomorrow to know the reason, or perhaps the day after. The regime will say the result was in its favor, and the opposition will say it is lying. Those with agendas will say the declared result is a lie even if it’s true this time. The problem is trust. There is no longer any trust and there’s this constant foreign intervention. I am pessimistic.”

The middle-aged shopkeeper appeared to be speaking for a significant proportion of Syrians, who refuse to identify with either side in the conflict and tend to view the country’s prospects as bleak.

On the other hand, the catchphrase “Syria is fine” is much in use in the capital these days.

One striking thing, particularly as of late, is how readily Syrians discuss politics with strangers, without fear or reservation. Any visitor can sense that the stereotype of Syrians living in perpetual terror of the “iron fist” is has become something of the past.

At 9am on polling day, Arab and foreign journalists gathered in front of the Ministry of Information building on the Mezzeh highway. The ministry was taking them on a tour of polling stations, where it said they would be allowed to report freely. Not all were satisfied with the explanation that the tour had been limited to specific stations as it would be impossible to visit them all.

At the polling station at Zaki Arsouzi School in the Rukneddine neighborhood, pictures of the president and his father and predecessor Hafez Assad were hung prominently alongside each other. By 10am, the official in charge said 50 out of an expected 500 local voters had already cast their ballots. The number of papers visible inside the translucent plastic ballot boxes seemed to confirm that. An official supervising one box remarked that residents of this affluent neighborhood “like to sleep in,” and more would come in as the day went on.

The media delegation was then taken to the Martyr Abd al-Raouf Said polling station in Barzeh, about 15 minutes drive away. The official in charge was clearly a Fairouz fan, who kept the Lebanese diva’s voice turned up loud on the radio as voters arrived to cast their ballots. He said 170 out of an anticipated 1,000 had done so by 10am.

In Damascus, Assad loyalists seemed to dominate the public scene while opponents of the regime are hard to find. But you’ll find those who are disillusioned with both sides.

At the end of polling day, a man in his 70s was sitting in a hotel café, leafing through the pages of a Lebanese newspaper. He was not pessimistic and spoke openly against the regime. He wanted Assad to go because “neither a new constitution nor anything else will change a thing about the crisis.” He did not vote in the referendum.

He went on to explain that he had been jailed several times, although he refused to discuss his ideological leanings. He said he did not like the Gulf states that are hostile to Assad and knew that the West was pursuing its own agenda by joining forces with them against him. He was opposed to the armed opposition, but also to the regime. He seemed opposed to everything.

That’s just about the most you will find in Damascus. The rest of Syria, however, is another story.

Rif Dimashq

Outside the city in the surrounding province of Rif Dimashq (Damascus Countryside), the scene was varied in terms of voter turnout.

While local branches of the ruling Baath party worked hard to get their supporters to vote, opposition coordinating committees campaigned for a boycott on the grounds that the new constitution does not speak for the people. As a result, turnout was high in some areas but almost non-existent in others. All districts, however, suffered a power outage on referendum day, afflicting the regime’s supporters and opponents alike.

The southwestern neighborhood of Daraya appeared to be on a different planet to the capital. The shops were closed, and the streets practically empty. Hardly any students were attending school. When asked for the reason, the answer was firm: “We don’t care about the constitution.”

But things looked completely different in nearby Mudamiyeh. It looked as though it had not witnessed any recent military and security operations. The streets were unusually crowded, as were the polling stations, and there were pro-regime marches in support of the reforms.

This was the case in other areas to the west and south of the capital too.

In Zabadani, to the northwest, the wounds inflicted in recent days did not seem to affect participation rates. The polling stations were busy there too. Cameras from state TV were waiting outside to ask people coming in and out what they thought. Some replied that they supported the new constitution as part of Assad’s reform package. Others said they were opposed to Article 3 (which requires the president to be a Muslim), the election law, or even determining the president’s minimum age.

One voter, who requested anonymity, found it bizarre that Baathists had been campaigning hard to get people to vote for a constitution that would supposedly strip their party of all the privileges it has acquired over the decades.

“Did they give them a different copy of it than the one we got?” he quipped. He said he had voted against the new constitution. “There are many defects in it. Perhaps if there are a lot of ‘no’ votes like mine, they will change some of the articles.”

In the Rif Dimashq towns located along the Damascus-Homs highway, voter turnout also varied.

In Zamalka, on the outskirts of the capital, civil disobedience and a boycott was in effect. Walls and shop-fronts were covered with spray-painted graffiti calling for freedom and the downfall of the regime. Some bore the marks of having been whitewashed over by the security forces when they moved in. Meanwhile, dozens of protesters were busy distributing pamphlets calling for a boycott and strike.

There were similar scenes in Harasta and Douma, featuring large demonstrations held in response to the authorities’ calling on people to vote. Protesters blocked the roads with burning tires, and shops were closed during the daytime in line with what some termed a “stage of revolutionary escalation.” The anti-referendum protests were planned for the evening.

Nevertheless, supporters of the regime and ruling party were able to make it to the polls. They also staged counter-demonstrations backing the regime, although state media were not preset in these areas.

Northern Variations

Further north, the region of the Kalamoun mountains seemed more engaged with the referendum than elsewhere. There was a big turnout in the towns of Jeiroud, Nabak, and Deir Atiya, accompanied by heavy state media coverage and a significant amount of campaigning by Baathists.

In parts of Rif Dimashq, minor parties allied to the Baath in the Progressive National Front, such as the communists, also urged people to vote in the referendum. Many of their members, ironically, are likely to have ended up voting “no.”

Voting also varied from place to place in Syria’s largest province, Aleppo, home to a quarter of the country’s population.

In the city of Aleppo, the overall turnout was high, but it was weak or non-existent in some districts. The same was true in some rural areas to the north and west, where armed groups tried to block roads and disrupt access to polling stations.

Turnout was reported to be moderate to high in the rest of the province – notably Safira, Manbej, and Jabal Semaan – where the regime enjoys considerable popularity, and there have been only limited demonstrations since the protests began almost a year ago.

A video also appeared on Youtube showing that the main highway from Aleppo to Turkey was blocked, ostensibly by the Syrian Free Army in response to actions by the security forces in the town of Azzaz.

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Lax Referendum Rules

Unlike at the local elections a month ago, indelible ink was not used to mark voters’ thumbs in the constitutional referendum.

That is when voting actually took pace. It is clear that it did not in any significant sense in regions witnessing security crackdowns and battles between security forces and gunmen.

Outside scrutiny of the process was limited to the presence of about 100 representatives of the Arab and foreign media, and 90 invited “political and legal figures,” according to the ministry of information. No formal observers or non-governmental organizations were involved, the head of the Damascus area elections office, Khaled al-Shammaa, told Al-Akhbar.

He conceded that procedures were relaxed in some polling stations, making irregularities possible. Unregistered voters were also allowed to vote on presentation of an ID card or other legal documentation, so multiple voting could have taken place in theory.

But he doubted there had been much of it in practice. “The citizen has no interest in voting more than once,” he reasoned, adding, “it’s not like choosing between different competing candidates.”

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.