Posters around town urged people to vote. “Don’t turn your back on voting,” one said.
Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria defied international calls to halt attacks on rebel enclaves as at least 89 people were killed nationwide Saturday on the eve of a constitutional referendum that the opposition sees as a ploy by President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Assad presented the revised charter — which allows for at least a theoretical opening of the country’s political system — as an effort to placate critics and quell the 11-month uprising against his rule.
But the vote is unlikely to overshadow a new round of international condemnation and calls that Assad leave power.
The new charter would create a multiparty system in Syria, which has been ruled by the same family dynasty since Assad’s father Hafez seized power in a coup in 1963. Such change as unthinkable a year ago.
After 11 months of bloodshed, however, Assad’s opponents say the referendum and other promises of reform are not enough and have called for a boycott of the vote.
Assad was roundly criticized Friday at a major international conference on the Syrian crisis in Tunisia, where U.S., European and Arab officials began planning a civilian peacekeeping mission to deploy after the regime falls.
President Barack Obama said Friday of Assad’s rule: “It is time for that regime to move on.”
On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Assad’s crackdown belied promised reforms.
“That kind of logic unfortunately renders any kind of reform meaningless,” he said. “To fight on the one hand with your people and then to claim that there is reform is contradictory.”
Still, Assad enjoys substantial support in many parts of the country. Some have benefited from his policies, others fear chaos or sectarian civil war if he falls.
The insular nature of the regime makes the extent and character of that support hard to measure, and the regime has prevented most media from operating freely in the country during the uprising.
Posters around town urged people to vote. “Don’t turn your back on voting,” one said.