Syria’s ruling Baath Party under President Bashar Assad has put ahead a bill which allows the formation of other political parties alongside the main ruling party. The multiparty bill is seen as a part of the series of concessions that the ruling regime is presenting in the wake of the protests that had created a huge hue and cry in Syria in the recent times. The creation of the bill is seen as the government’s giving up to the protests.

But the announcement of such a bill hasn’t deterred the protesters from demanding a complete downfall of the regime. The draft law suggests for the clearance to form any political party which is not religious or tribal in nature or discriminates due to ethnicity, gender or race. It is highly notable that Mr. Assad’s ruling Baath party has held a monopoly over political life in Syria for decades.

One of the key demands of the protesters has been the abolishment of Article 8 in the Syrian constitution which states that the Baath party is the leader of the state and society.
Legislator Mohammad Habash told that the bill would likely be presented for debate at the next session on August 7. Mr. Assad inherited power in 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez Assad, and has made a series of provisions to try to ease the growing outrage. He removed the decades-old emergency laws that gave the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge, granted Syrian nationality to thousands of Kurds, a long-ostracized minority, and issued several pardons. But all his endeavors to gain support and confidence of the protesters have gone in vain time and again. The protestors have dismissed all his announcements as only symbolic or late in time. The protesters’ foremost demand is to end the security crackdown and the release of thousands of people who have been detained in recent months.

The President, on Sunday, replaced the Governor of the eastern oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour, which had been suffering from intense protests calling for the overthrowing of the regime. The President has removed several Governors in tense provinces since the uprisings began.

REPORT BY BIKRAM SINGH RANA