Assad’s election plan is simply a surreal exercise

Bashar Al Assad should face the Syrians in a court of law, not at the ballot box

There cannot be many countries that have held elections during times of war. During Lebanon’s civil war in the 1970s and 1980s, democracy was put on hold. The same happened in the 1940s in Britain during the Second World War. But one would have to go back to 1864, during the American civil war, to find an election held against the backdrop of such a dark conflict.

The nearest recent example could be Iraq in 2006, which certainly felt like a civil war. But there are not many times that a government has chosen to have an election while it pulverises its own civilians and its own cities. Dropping bombs is a surprisingly ineffective campaign strategy.

It is both easy and difficult to be flippant about Bashar Al Assad’s decision to call an election in six weeks time. Easy because the whole idea of a presidential election at this time is a farce. Mr Assad has never faced a genuine challenge at the ballot box. He will not face one in June.

Who could stand against him? When the opposition say that he will field “an actor” to stand against him, they are right. This is theatre, not politics. On what platform does Mr Al Assad intend to stand? Stability? Law and order? Peace and prosperity? His regime has done more to destroy these things in Syria than any foreign enemy has ever managed.

Will Mr Al Assad tour the refugee camps of Turkey and Jordan, kissing babies and shaking hands, knowing that it was his regime that slaughtered parents and maimed children?

Will he promise to build more schools and hospitals and create more jobs, knowing that his regime has destroyed more in the last three years than were built in the past thirty?

That’s why it is hard to even joke about his decision. Because the war continues. Just this week, hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in air-strikes in Aleppo. The 150,000 killed are still mourned, the millions displaced remain homeless.

No election that has Mr Al Assad as a candidate can be anything but farcical and surreal at the same time. No election can confer legitimacy on a regime that has destroyed so much.

Mr Al Assad certainly does need to face the public for his policies over the past three years. But Syrians might feel that judgement would be better decided in a court.