My speech at the rally today on Syrian election

Thanks for inviting me to speak at this rally.

I am attending this rally for simple reasons. I will talk about these reasons shortly.

For the last three years, Western countries and many countries supporting the violence in Syria deafened our ears with all rhetoric about Syrians rights to choose their leadership. They supported all kind of violence, including cutting heads and eating hearts, in the name of “Syrians right to choose their leadership”. Yet when the golden opportunity for the Syrians to express their view on who they want to lead them during this critical time came, these countries opposed the presidential election.

Instead of encouraging Syrians to go to polling boxes to achieve political changes, these countries did all what they could to abort this constitutional entitlement. Not only Western countries and their allies opposed conducting presidential election, but they worked very hard to abort it or at least to disrupt it to claim later that it is invalid.

The intensifying military attacks by terrorist groups, including the attack on Kasab and Daraa were just to achieve this mission of disrupting the election.

The attempt to pass resolution in UN Security Council to refer Syria to International Court of Justice is another attempt to disrupt the elections.

And the new threats by US and its allies to intensify arming the rebels are other attempts.

And one can ask: why these countries want desperately to disrupt this constitutional entitlement.

Not only this. We know now that US and its allies suggested to Russian during Geneva meeting to encourage Syrian government to accept renewing for the president for another 2 years with no election.

It is very clear that US and its allies do not want Syrian government to conduct this election because they know that president Bashar AL Assad will win comfortably, regardless of who run against him. Such win will confirm that the so-called Syrian revolution has no support among Syrians and it was no more than a Western imperialist bid to change unfriendly president and government.

And this is why I am attending this rally. I support Syrians to go and elect their president freely and democratically.

I know that Western regimes will criticise this election and will brand it as “rigged and undemocratic”, even with no evidence to prove these accusations. But the facts cannot be denied.

My visit last December to Syria as part of Australian solidarity delegation gave me clear indication about the clear popularity of current president Bashar AL Assad. Wherever we went in Damascus, people were praising the president and the Syrian army. The popularity is unquestionable.

I said on interview with SBS radio last January that the election will be conducted, it will be transparent and the president Bashar Al Assad will win. And this is what will happen on the 3 of June.

I am not Syrian. I cannot vote. But I am here today to support Syrians to vote freely and choose the candidate they trust to lead the country through these critical times.

It is shameful that many Western countries are refusing to allow Syrians to vote in the embassies of their homeland. This is undemocratic. These actions violate human rights of these people to express their views in free and democratic way. And these actions indeed aim to derail peaceful process to end violence in Syria.

I am here stand in solidarity with all Syrians in their bid to tell the whole world their resolve to work very hard to end violence in their country by all means. One of these means is voting in the presidential election.

Victory to Syria and Syrians.