Exclusive statement | Riyad Derdar, co-president of the Syrian Democratic Council: “No elections to take place in Autonomous Administered areas”
Riyad Derdar, co-president of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) said in an interview with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) that the “Autonomous Administration decided that its areas will not participate in the presidential elections scheduled to take place by end of May.”
He added the SDC so far hasn’t taken any decision in this regard, waiting for announcing the details of the election process.
“We are monitoring what is happening and will take a decisive decision at the right time,” Derdar added.
He said the Autonomous Administration demanded the elections be based on the required constitutional changes and in accordance with the United Nations (UN) resolution, particularly resolution number 2254 that stipulates for taking gradual steps for settling the Syrian conflict starting by forming a transitional ruling authority, drafting a new constitution until holding the elections under UN supervision in a safe environment that ensures the participation of all Syrians inside the country or abroad.
The SDC’s top official pointed out that “a presidential election is a tool for passing the regime without legal or political justification which indicated the continuous arrogance practiced by the regime against the vision and the right of his people to decide their destiny.”
Washington announced on Wednesday night that the incoming Syrian presidential elections under Bashar al-Assad regime wouldn’t be free or integral and wouldn’t represent the Syrian people.
The Syrian people still look forward to embodying the ambitions that they have protested for to achieve freedom, justice, and peaceful transfer of power. But the “Syrian Revolution” has been militarized and Islamized, factors that opened the space for causing the largest war in the 21st century that has been complicated by the poisonous foreign intervention which destroyed the country and worsened its conditions.