Syrians Vote for Stability

Hassan Olleiq - al-Akhbar newspaper*

All the states participating in the war on Syria can actually deny the presidential elections that have just taken place in the war-torn nation. They can even cry out that the polls were illegitimate, falsified, more of a masquerade, a shame...but all this mayhem and fuss won't change a thing about the matter of fact.

The elections put a term to the West seeking to make profit by political pressures. The regime has said its world reminding everybody that it still enjoys a representative quality that a huge category of the people still supports it, that those who partook in the polls do not see in the opposition a satisfying substitute, and that they actually voted for stability.

What happened was a continuation of the Syrian authority's performance in Geneva II conference. On-the-ground facts preclude the enemies of the regime from pressuring it and hence pushing it to concede. For the past days, the opposition had threatened to boycott the polls, forcibly, but it couldn't do so.

It showered Damascus and its suburbs as well as Aleppo, Lattakia and others with bombs and missiles, but this didn't hamper citizens from casting their ballot. The government even opened an electoral center where the Syrian army was fighting, from Deir-ezzor and Hassaka in the east till the coastline in the west; from Edleb and Aleppo in the north till Qoneitra, Daraa and Soueidaa in the south, passing by Homs, Hama, and Damascus. Gunmen and armed groups had prepared themselves for attacks, but to avail. They failed in Deir-ezzor and in Homs and Damascus countryside. In Aleppo, the army turned the tables and advanced south the capital.

All Syrian forces were fully mobilized during the polls. For the first time, Mig 29 intensively flew, in a military display of force simultaneously with the balloting that said nothing but that the army was still fighting throughout the national soil.

The abdication of Bashar Assad is just not envisaged from now until 2021. And leading the opposition to despair is part of the regime and its allies' strategy in an attempt to throw weapons, and open doors to reconciliations among the communities supporting gunmen and the army. But despair hasn't reached the field yet.

As for the United States and its allies and subordinates, they will act no differently than the opposition. The US says that the regime is obliging people to vote. And to liberate those very people, the US is pouring them down with mortar shells. Standards! The sponsors of gunmen fighting the army and their allies will only chip in more money and arms for more bloodshed. They will wager on new speculations whenever their bet fails. They will keep doing so until they are desperate from trying to make the balance in the field swing their way. The regime and its allies, for their part, will help them reach this phase.

*Translated by al-Ahed news