After a long election day that saw good voter participation, the counting of votes in the local administrative council elections began on Sunday evening, immediately after the polls closed. The envelopes were counted to ensure that they matched the number of votes of voters.
On Sunday, Syrians went to the polling stations distributed over the Syrian geography to choose their representatives for the local administrative councils, who competed for 19,086 seats distributed over 1,470 administrative units. The electoral process began at seven o’clock Sunday morning and continued until nine in the evening of the same day after the Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections extended the election period for two hours.
In a statement to Al-Watan, the head of the Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections, Judge Counselor Jihad Murad said that the counting process is carried out in the presence of candidates or their agents, the media, and the electoral committee in the center. He pointed out that this process continues until the completion of all electoral centers.
“Slap in the faces”
The Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, Hilal al-Hilal, considered that the holding of local administration elections is a message addressed to everyone as a “slap in the faces” of our enemies, especially since our enemies are very upset by Syria’s commitment –under the guidance of President Bashar al-Assad– to the constitutional entitlements.
For his part, Prime Minister Hussein Arnous stressed that the state views the elections of the local administration as a stage that will lead to the transfer of many central powers to the local administration and therefore, the government is going to administrative decentralization. These elections, which we are witnessing in all governorates, are a message to all enemies of Syria that Syria is cautious, at all times, of its constitutional and electoral entitlements.
This article was translated and 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.
