Mass withdrawals of High Negotiation Committee (HNC) members from the Constitutional Committee will not occur, according to a Syrian opposition figure.
The expected pullouts were prevented by a meeting between members of the opposition delegation and Russia’s permanent envoy to the UN Office in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov.
“The decision is not in their hands, as they are still begging the Russians to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” he added.
He revealed to North Press that after the end of the fifth round of the Constitutional Committee’s works, “members of the Syrian opposition delegation rushed to Gatilov.”
“There were intentions for mass withdrawals from the HNC, but the matter ended after the meeting. It seems that they will transfer the issue to Astana, which is the Russian goal,” the source noted.
Human rights activists believe that the Syrian government’s proposed census is a prelude to the elections that Assad will hold.
Pro-government webpages reported, quoting the Central Bureau of Statistics of Damascus, that the population of Syria, as of January 31, reached 26,640,633 people.”
The human rights source indicated that upon reviewing the tables of the Central Bureau of Statistics, it was found that the number of deaths from 2010 to 2018 amounted to 617,268.
The aforementioned number is at least one-third of the correct number of civilians, not to mention the statistics of the military deaths, whose number exceeds 250,000, as the source stated.
According to the Bureau’s statistics, the rate of population increase is about 400,000 on average every year, meaning an increase of 6 million until 2020, “and if we add it to the population from 2004, which is 17,920,844, the number of the population will be 23,920,844,” he explained.
Syrian opposition figures unanimously agreed that Russia has made up its mind with regard to Assad’s nomination for the upcoming presidential elections, which are scheduled for May 2021.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
