One wonders why, after such a long presidential term, President Bashar El-Asasd is forbidden to run for the presidential seat. After three years of war, a “Game of Seats” (or Thrones) is set to be launched as our “neighbor” seeks to establish a new reality and to ward off foreign interference in a “sovereign process” that ought to portray a new Syria.
“He might not be allowed to run for president during the oncoming June 3rd elections due to his wife’s British citizenship,” Khaled Ayoubi said.
Following his breakaway from the regime, the Syrian Chargé d’Affaires, who left his post in 30 July 2012, divulged information pertaining to the current Syrian commander in chief’s wife who holds a British citizenship, since she was born and raised in the United Kingdom as the daughter of Syrian expats originally from Homs. Her decision to return to Syria came as a result of her marriage to Bashar Al-Assad in 2000 and giving birth to three children.
The new electoral law that was passed in March last year clearly set out preconditions to be met by individuals meaning to bid for the seat. We might enumerate a few, such as the age of the candidate, which should be forty years old by the start of the election year, holding the Syrian citizenship from Syrian parents and should be married to a Syrian citizen.
Aforementioned law did not categorize Asma’ Al-Assad’s as having legally been stripped of her Syrian citizenship. Yet, decree number 276 of 1969 stipulates, in item number 10, that “Arab Syrian individuals shall lose their Syrian citizenship should they hold a foreign one. However, this must be paralleled by a special decree to strip him of his original nationality, based on his own suggestion as well as that of the Minister of Interior, who is to allow him to relinquish it after meeting all national requirements.”
Another item in aforementioned decree requires all Arab Syrians be imprisoned from one to three months should said individual hold a second nationality and explicitly choose to relinquish the Syrian one, hence all individuals bearing two nationalities are considered be to breaching the law and are required to serve a penalty.
Asma’ Al-Assad then unwittingly cornered her own husband, thus bringing his political career to a halt. However, this situation is temporary since the regime is seeking to freeze the decree under an item entitled “Maintaining ties between immigrants and their homeland.”
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Bashar al-Assad
Asma’ al-Assad
Presidency
Syria
Presidential elections
Nationality
Banned
UK
United Kingdom
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