The Syrian Regime's Ambassador in Jordan, Bahjat Suleiman, has announced that he has put what he called "an honorary Arab poll" in the building of the Syrian Embassy in Amman, inviting "all the honorable Arabs " to participate in the presidential elections.
His son, Haidara Suleiman, meanwhile, reportedly made a public threat, saying: "If you didn’t vote for Assad and your passport doesn't prove that you have voted, you will be banned from returning to Syria."
Syrian activists in Jordan rejected the threats form Suleiman and his son.
Ihab Assad rejected the exploitation of the requirement for Syrians to obtain official papers from the regime embassy, calling the election as "a comic play that all the regimes in the world should be ashamed of. With my participation or without it, Bashar [Assad] is not the legal president of Syria".
"Is it possible for these elections to achieve our dream and find a solution? Who are those candidates who appeared suddenly? Is it possible that if we refuse to participate, European and Arab societies will think that we don’t want a solution?All these questions invade the minds of Syrians who resided in Amman since the 1980's."
These questions did not prevent Nour Boulad from boycotting the elections, saying 'I will never participate, and the only case in which I may participate is if the rebels and activists on the ground ask us to vote for someone except Assad."
At the official level, the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Nasser Judeh, described the Syrian presidential elections as "a farce" at a recent meeting of the Friends of Syria group; the Jordanian government confirmed that it does not mind if the Syrians living in Jordan vote in the presidential election, but "only inside the embassy".
The Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs and the government spokesman, Khalid al-Kalaldeh, added in a statement that "the diplomatic norms allow embassies to hold the elections."
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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