The Presidential election in Syria will be held on June 3. The election is being held under the new Syrian constitution which was adopted in 2012 following a referendum in the war-torn nation. The constitution allows a President to be elected for two seven-year terms. This is the first time that the incumbent, President Bashar al-Assad of the Ba’ath Party, is facing a challenge.
The other contenders are Maher Hajjar, an independent candidate, and Hassan al-Nouri, head of the National Initiative for Administration and Change (NIAC), which was established with the aim of defusing the violence that followed after a civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.
The elections will be held in the backdrop of the civil war that continues to rage between supporters of the Ba’ath government that has been in power since 1963, and anti-government forces. The United Nations estimates that over 1,00,000 people have been killed in this war and over nine million Syrians displaced.