Syria planning politically open society

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has announced a new constitution for Syria, and promised democratic elections in five years.

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The constitution continues with some of the elements in the constitution that prevailed in the previous Bashar Al-Assad regime.

One-third of the members of parliament will be nominated by the president, and the executive is constituted by the president himself and no one else. There is also the provision for parliament to sack the president. But this is seen as inconsequential because the president will always command a majority in parliament.

There is the freedom of expression and of press and social, political, and economic rights for women. More importantly, the interim constitution stipulates that the head of the state will have to be a Muslim, and the laws that will be followed will flow from Islamic jurisprudence. Anda committee has also been formed to draft a new constitution.

It is not clear whether the new constitution will be more expansive than the interim document, and whether it will recognise the diversity-religious, ethnicand cultural-of Syria.