Syrian Rebel Leader al-Sharaa Says Elections Could Take Up to Four Years
The leader of the Levant Liberation Agency (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, in Arabic), Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, participates in an event at the historic Grand Mosque of the Umayyads in Damascus, Syria, on 8 December. Photo: EFE/ Yayha Nemar
December 29, 2024 Hour: 6:17 pm
On Sunday, Syria’s de facto leader, former al-Qaida member Ahmed al-Sharaa, said the whole process of preparing and rewriting a new constitution can take two to three years, and holding elections can take up to four years.
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That said al-Sharaa to the Qatari TV channel Al Arabiya in an exclusive interview.
The former known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani explained that “holding legitimate elections is a task that could take up to four years as it requires a comprehensive population census,” due the more than 15 million people are abroad in the wake of the civil war that broke out in 2011 and which, following the fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, has not yet returned.
Al Sharaa stressed that “any proper choice will require a full population census and that it will take time, legal contact with Syrian communities abroad through embassies, recording deaths, births…”
In order to hold these elections, Al Sharaa explained that there are a number of steps to follow before taking power directly so that the state institutions do not collapse; rewriting a constitution, “which takes a long time, can be two or three years, because we are rebuilding a destroyed state.”
Addressing criticism of the composition of the transitional government, al-Sharaa said that the uniformity in appointments, many of those former al-Qaeda members and other terrorist organisations, was necessary to ensure coherence during this critical phase.
As for the dissolution of the factions, including the Levante Liberation Agency (Hayaat Tahrir al Sham or HTS in Arabic), he said, according to his speech in Al Arabiya, that “the group will certainly be dissolved and this will be announced at the National Dialogue Conference” and addressed that “a country cannot be run by the mentality of groups and militias.”
Autor: ACJ
Fuente: Al Arabiya // EFE // AP