MESOP News Roundup SYRIA : Thursday, May 1

23 candidates for Syrian elections

Twenty-three Syrians have announced they will attempt to run for president, the official news agency SANA reported on Thursday, the final deadline for candidate applications. Current President Bashar al-Assad, who announced earlier this week he would run, is one of the 23 candidates. If approved, candidates must collect signatures from 35 of Syria’s 250 parliamentarians before becoming official nominees. The election, scheduled for June 3^rd, has been repeatedly labeled a “parody of democracy” by the Syrian opposition and Western nations.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Syria’s internal opposition, the National Coordination Committee, which is formally tolerated by the Syrian regime, told a-Safir his group would join in a boycott of the elections, labeling them “theater.”