Syrian local elections go ahead amid protests despite mounting death toll

SYRIANS CAST ballots yesterday in elections for local councils under a new law designed to decentralise the country’s administration as clashes continued in northern and southern protest hubs. The official Syrian news agency, Sana, reported that voters “flocked” to the polls while opposition activists, who called for a boycott, said the turn-out was low.

A source in Aleppo, which has been quiet during eight months of unrest, said many Armenians and Christians would vote “so their communities would have seats on the councils”. Civil servants and government supporters voted in the capital, Damascus. Some 43,000 candidates were competing for 17,588 seats in 1,337 administrative units. This was the first election in which candidates stood from outside the national front, dominated by the Baath party.

President Bashar al-Assad signed the new law in August with the aim of meeting opposition demands for an end to Baath party rule and multiparty elections but his reforms have been rebuffed as “too little, too late” and the opposition insists on his ouster.

Sana also announced the deaths of three security personnel in the southern Deraa province during fierce fighting between army deserters and loyalist troops. Clashes were reported in Idlib, on the Turkish border.

Anti-regime activists said 13 civilians had been killed during protests. A general strike continued for a second day in locations where the opposition is strong. The foreign-based Syrian National Council said the strike was observed across the country. However, shops in Damascus and Aleppo were said to be open.

Local committees co-ordinating anti-regime protests aim to shut down shops, universities, transport and national and international highways in a staged operation climaxing on December 29th.

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi denied an accusation made by French foreign minister Alain Juppé that Damascus was responsible for a bomb that wounded French peacekeepers in southern Lebanon last Friday.

This was the first time Syria was blamed for any of the attacks that have targeted French, Spanish and Italian peacekeepers over the past few years.

UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay, who has put the crackdown death toll at 4,000, was scheduled to brief the UN Security Council on the situation.