Envoy Lauds Tehran’s Measures for Syria Presidential Elections
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Syria’s ambassador to Tehran commended the Islamic Republic for preparing the ground for “free and transparent” presidential elections in the Iranian capital that allowed the Syrian expatriates to freely vote in the democratic exercise outside their homeland.
Iran has carried out whatever preparatory work to let the Syrian embassy hold free and transparent elections in Tehran, Adnan Hassan Mahmoud told the Tasnim News Agency on Wednesday.
He made the comments while the Syrian expatriates residing in Iran have started to cast their ballots at a polling station in Syria’s embassy in Tehran since morning.
The polls opened at 7 am local time and will continue for 12 hours. The Syrian embassy hosts the only polling station in the Islamic Republic.
Elsewhere in his comments, Mahmoud admired Iran for the continued support it has given to the Syrian nation’s “political will and right to freedom of expression and participation in the elections.”
The envoy said nearly all Syrians from different Iranian provinces have flocked to the embassy to cast their ballots.
The participation of Syrian expatriates living in Iran is indeed their support for the reconstruction of Syria, establishment of security and stability and for the campaign against terrorism, the envoy stressed.
Syria’s state-run news agency SANA had earlier quoted a source affiliated with the Foreign Ministry as saying that more than 200,000 Syrian expatriates in 39 countries have registered to vote in the elections.
In the meantime, France, Germany and Belgium have deprived the Syrian voters of the opportunity to participate in the elections, the source said.
Moreover, the Syrians cannot vote in the US and some of the Persian Gulf Arab littoral states due to the closure of Syrian embassies, according to the source.
Syria’s presidential elections on the mainland is slated for June 3 and three candidates, Bashar al-Assad, Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah al-Nuri, have launched their election campaign since May 11.
