Al-Assad's advisor denies possibility of early presidential election in Syria
MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Political Advisor to the Syrian President Bouthaina Shaaban has denied the possibility of an early presidential election in Syria and said there have been no such requests.
"This is not even mentioned there. We are in 2019 and will have the election in 2021. Nobody is asking for that anyway," Shaaban told Interfax in an interview on the sidelines of the Middle East conference of the Valdai Discussion Club.
Interfax asked whether President Bashar al-Assad might agree to hold an early election in Syria.
As to whether the Syrian government might agree to change a part of the Constitution dealing with the presidential election and allow candidates who haven't lived for 10 years in Syria to run for presidency, Shaaban said, "President Assad said two days ago in his speech that the Constitution is going to be made by Syrians. It is a Syrian Constitution and we will not allow anybody to impose a constitution on us. What the constitution will decide, we will act according to that Constitution."