Syrian social media activists have launched on Thursday a new hashtag on Twitter
#BloodElections “to
expose the coming presidential elections,” calling for all activists inside Syria and abroad to take apart in the campaign.
The campaign organizers called in statement posted online for an urgent action by the ‘people of conscience’ to stop the presumed elections.
“Tens of thousands more may soon die if Bashar al-Assad is allowed to carry through with his plan of blood elections. Blood elections are not about democracy; Syrians have never known democracy under the Assad regime. Rather, blood elections are Assad's way of slamming the door on any possibility of peace for Syria,” the statement said.
Embattled Bashar Assad will face two other candidates in the coming June presidential election, the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court announced last week. It’s a vote he’s widely expected to win amid the country’s raging civil war, AP reported.
Assad, who is seeking a third seven-year term, will face Hassan bin Abdullah al-Nouri, a 54-year-old lawmaker from Damascus, and 43-year-old Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar, a lawmaker from the northern city of Aleppo.
Opposition activists and western countries have condemned the elections as a sham as voting is expected to be held only in government-controlled territory.
Assad took power after the death of his father, Hafez, in 2000. Previously, they had been elected by referendums in which they were the only candidates and voters cast yes-or-no ballots.
In March, the Syrian Parliament approved an electoral law opening the door — at least in theory — to other candidates. The new law, however, placed conditions effectively ensuring that almost no opposition figures would be able to run. It states that any candidate must have lived in Syria for the past 10 years and cannot have any other citizenship.
No reliable statistics exist on public support for Assad. But a large number of Syrians are mistrustful of all the country’s warring parties, AP said.
Syria’s conflict has evolved into war with sectarian overtones that activists say has killed more than 150,000 people. Islamic extremists, including foreign fighters and Syrian rebels who have taken up hardline Al Qaeda-style ideologies, have played an increasingly prominent role, dampening the West’s support for the rebellion to overthrow Assad.
To read more about #BloodElections campaign via
its official Facebook page
The campaign organizers’ statement (Full text)
“A Call to Action: Assad's Blood Elections”
To people of conscience across the world:
We need your help to spread a message. It is a simple message, but it carries the power to both save lives and to kill.
If our message seems obvious to you, consider yourself lucky; many people will soon risk their lives to repeat it. You can protect these people. All you need to do is let the world know you've heard them.
Where we live, repainting the front door is an act of home improvement. Where they live, it is an act of submission to tyranny. Where we live, elections let us choose who represents us. Where they live, elections are blood elections.
As you read this, armed men are terrorizing shopkeepers, threatening them with arrest or worse if they fail to repaint their front doors. A tyrant is turning the streets red with paint and with the blood of his people. Children are starved, women are raped, and innocents are slaughtered, all in the name of blood elections.
Tens of thousands more may soon die if Bashar al-Assad is allowed to carry through with his plan of blood elections. Blood elections are not about democracy; Syrians have never known democracy under the Assad regime. Rather, blood elections are Assad's way of slamming the door on any possibility of peace for Syria.
First come elections that Assad wins easily. These will be fake, and will serve only to frighten residents into painting their doors with the red of the regime flag. Then comes military escalation and slaughter that turns the streets red with blood. That blood will be real.
To save lives, here is the message that you must share: Assad's elections will be blood elections.
People across Syria will soon mobilize to spread this message, though it may mean their deaths. Protesters will gather to shout "Blood Elections!" Some will die by gunfire, others by bombing, others by poison gas. Activists will move furtively to deface the storefronts that they were forced to paint red, scrawling the slogan "Blood Elections!" Some will be caught, and will die slow deaths under unbearable torture.
We initiate this call to action in solidarity with the Syrian people, as free individuals with the privilege to say “Blood Elections” without fear. We ask that you join our initiative, and spread our message to thwart Assad’s plans before they can come to fruition. By spreading our message, you can let Assad know that individuals of conscience across the world are watching, and that blood elections will not give him diplomatic license to slaughter civilians.
3PM today is zero hour for the "Blood Elections" awareness campaign. From 3PM onward, please spread the hashtag #BloodElections on social media as often as you can. We also call for sit-ins, marches and other public demonstrations to raise awareness of Assad's plans for blood elections. If you hold a position of political or intellectual authority, we urge you to use you power to amplify the voice of Syrians whose lives may depend on this message.
Together, we can ensure that when residents of Syria raise the life-or-death call of "Blood Elections," they will not be speaking alone.
(Editing by Reza Ali)
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