With less than 40 days to the next elections...

"Political parties and alliances launched their campaigns to prepare themselves for the December elections; they’re marketing their programs and policies in a way that is considerably different from what we experienced a year ago and entirely different from what we had for decades under the Ba’ath despotic rule.
Now we have more than a few platforms to choose from and not the one and only “central report of the national conference of the Ba’ath party” which used to poetically illustrate the Party’s totalitarian vision for the Arab nation and we had the right to choose then too but it was more like "take this or have your head taken"! While now we see politicians seeking voters’ acceptance, each one of them building his strategy on what he believes appeals to the mainstream opinion."
ITM