Shamih Mikhael Moussa, born in Btaiha, Syria in 1963, is the first Christian trying to run for President of the Arab Republic.
The deadline for submitting one’s application for candidacy to the Constitutional Court expired on May 1, but the country’s 3 June presidential elections, anticipates another win by President Bashar al-Assad.
The next steps for Moussa and other candidates include collecting the written support of at least 35 of the 250 members of the Assembly to make sure that the request for application is accepted; 161 of the 250 Syrian MPs belong to the Baath Party, led by President Assad.
The Syrian Constitution requires that the President of Syria must be a Sunni Muslim, but the electoral law for the 2014 elections, which was passed in Parliament in March 2013, did not reference a specific religious affiliation of the candidates for Presidency.
Source: Agenzia Fides