Damascus countryside- Candidate for the post of President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Bashar al-Assad and his wife cast their votes at a polling station in the Municipality Council of Douma city in Damascus countryside.
“We are pleased to visit Douma city today and meet with its sons and honored people, as well to participate in this great national entitlement.. since it is our first visit after liberation.. we have to start by congratulating citizens of this city on liberation from terrorism and on their return to homeland, and their contribution with their brothers in the rest of areas, which have been liberated, in restoring life to normal, even gradually, and in participating in the national entitlements; whether the latest elections of the People’s Assembly or the presidential election today,” Candidate al-Assad said after casting his vote.
The Presidential Candidate added that this city has many names.. it is named as the capital of Ghouta … Bride of Ghouta, where terrorists, during the time of their occupation of the city, tried to distort its image and desecrate its reputation, but in reality, at that time, most of Douma citizens, who were inside or outside the city, were continuously contacting with the state institutions in one way or another, urging the state to come… the Syrian Arab Army to liberate … the law to return, implementation and stability which means the rule of law.
“Some citizens of this city have paid their lives as a price just for contacting or just for showing this desire… there were citizens from Douma, or from Ghouta who have fought with the Syrian Arab Army… some of them joined the army in a regular way, some of them have fought as supporting forces,” Presidential Candidate al-Assad said.
He went on saying that today’s visit to this place and casting vote in Douma has a number of sides, the first side is that Syria was not as they have tried to market…. a region against a region, a city against a city, sect against another or a civil war or a clash among the Syrians… the truth is not, we prove today from Douma that the Syrian people is one, in one trench against terrorism and treason.
The presidential candidate added” the second side is that this national occasion is also an occasion for us all to remember that this liberation and this entitlement today that we are practicing in this city and in other liberated areas would not have been possible without the thousands of martyrs who fell in defense of the land and of the people in Douma and tens of thousands in other areas of Syria.
He stressed that the third side is that this entitlement and the popular reaction that we see is an assertion that the Syrian citizen is free , the decision of the Syrian citizen is at his/her own hands , not in the hands of any other party and therefore all the statements we hear recently from Western countries, most of them with a colonial history that began before the campaign and continued until the past few days and perhaps the last few hours that comment on these elections and give an evaluation of them, determine their legitimacy and illegitimacy… of course, we, as a state, do not give interest to such statements, but the most important thing of what the state says or doesn’t say is the word of the people.
The presidential candidate said “I think that the popular interaction that we have seen during the past weeks was a clear and efficient response to all those… and this reaction tells them that the value of their opinions is zero.”
He concluded his speech by saying” I send greetings to all the citizens of Douma, to all citizens of Ghouta and to all citizens of the liberated areas, and certainly with each other and together we will work and build our cities, villages and towns, and we will restore to our fields their splendor and fragrance… we send greetings to all the Syrian Arab people everywhere inside and outside the homeland in Syria and in the migration because they are the only ones who have the great role in every achievement and no matter how small and no matter how great, because they are the ones who sacrificed and withstood.”
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)