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Syrian Referendum, February 2012

Basic facts
* Syria usually holds two types of elections, Presidential and People’s Assembly (Majlis-al-Sha’ab)
*  The Majlis al-Sha'ab has 250 members elected for a four year term in 15 multi-seat constituencies, in which 167 seats are guaranteed for the ruling National Progressive Front, a coalition of 11 political parties with Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party on the lead. Elections were supposed to be held in April 2011 but postponed to February 2012 and again were deferred due to current unrest in the country.
* Population: 22,517,750 (July 2011)
* Registered Voters: 11,967,611 (2007)
* On 26 February 2012 referendum was held to approve a new constitution.
* On 12 December 2011, a municipal election was held. The elections committee announced that the participation was 41 percent.
* Population in 2011: 21,762,978 (July 2010)
* Registered Voters in 2011: 11,967,611 (May 2007 )
* Parliamentary election would be held within 90 days after approval of a new constitution, which was put to a vote in a referendum on 26 February 2012.

February Referendum
* Total Number of Registered Voters for February Referendum: 14,589,954
* Total Number of Votes: 8, 376,447 (57.4 percent)
* Total votes in Favour of the new Constitution: 7,490,319 (89.4 per cent)
* Total votes against the new Constitution: 753,208 (9 per cent)
* Invalid Votes: 132,920 (1.6 per cent)
Source: International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES)

Syria Today, Parliamentary Elections 2012

Syrian Arab News Agency

Compiled by Paulami Sanyal

Paulami Sanyal is pursuing research at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Email

As part of the policy, the MEI@ND standardizes spellings and date format to make the text uniformly accessible and stylistically consistent. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views/positions of the MEI@ND. Editor, MEI@ND P R Kumaraswamy