US Team, Which Followed up Elections, Say Huge Turnout on Voting Affirmed Syrians’ Loyalty to Homeland

NEW YORK- The recent Syrian presidential elections were held in accordance with the international standards and the principle of pluralism which hasn’t been witnessed in Syria since the sixties of last century, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria’s Permanente Representative at the United Nations has said, pointing out that this pluralism, according to Western standards, is the essence of democracy.

Al-Jaafari was speaking on Wednesday during a press conference he jointly held with the American team which followed up the process of presidential elections held in Syria earlier this month.

Members of the team hailed the great turnout on voting which indicated the Syrians’ determination to rebuild their country on a more solid base.

Antiwar activist and writer Judy Bello from upstate New York said she took part in the following up of the elections to get better knowledge about the impacts of the West-backed war on Syria and the Syrian people. She hailed the massive turnout by the Syrians on voting in side Syria and abroad despite the fact that the Syrian expatriates in some European countries and the United States were prevented from casting their votes.

Bello pointed out that though there are no restrictions on elections in western countries, voting rate usually rises slightly above 50%, whereas the Syrians response to presidential elections was so big inside Syria and abroad and it was a strong message by the Syrian people to the world stressing their loyalty to their country and government.

“More importantly is that President Bashar Al-Assad has got 88% of the votes of the people who took part in elections,” Bello said, urging supporters of war on Syria to understand that their war has failed to break the will of the Syrian people.

Joe Losbaker, also an antiwar activist from Chicago, hailed the steadfastness of the Syrian people in the face of the foreign-backed war and their determination to rebuild their country and draw up their own future.

He said the western media was shocked when they saw hundreds of thousands of Syrians flocking to their embassy in Lebanon to cast their votes, pointing out that this huge turnout proves the Syrians victory and the defeat of the United States, NATO, Zionists and the Gulf states.

The Academic and former government consultant, Dr. Paul Larudee from north California, said he followed up the elections in the city of Homs, which witnessed high turnout despite threats and terrorist attacks by the so-called “armed opposition”.

“The Syrians wanted to send a message to the world affirming their support to their government and we got this message,” Dr. Paul Larudee added.

For her part, Jane Stillwater, a journalist and a war correspondent who covered the US invasion of Iraq, said she never saw in the United States the same enthusiasm and happiness she saw in Syria while she was following up the presidential elections in Sweida province in the south of the country.

Scott Williams, an activist at the International Action Center, said he visited a number of polling centers in Sweida, where he realized how unjust the war on Syria was.

 He added that he met a young Syrian lady who described her experience under the US and West-backed war as “daily nightmare and a horror movie”.

“Unlike the false elections held in the region and the West, the Syrian presidential elections expressed the will of the Syrian people,” Williams said, asserting that the heavy turnout on voting proved that millions of Syrians want peace, democracy and sovereignty and they are ready to staunchly defend their homeland and future.

Hamda Mustafa