Syria rules out abolishment of constitutional Article No. 8

Syria will not abolish Article No. 8 in its constitution, which stipulates the al-Baath party to be " the ruler of state and society," al-Watan daily, citing a senior official, reported on Tuesday.

Mohammad Saeed Bkhaitan, assistant secretary-general of the ruling Baath party, made the remarks on Monday when meeting with scientific and administrative staff of the Damascus University. He, at the same time, noted that changing the constitutional articles is the specialization of the parliament.

The Syrian parliament consists of 250 seats, of which the al- Baath party has 126, and the remaining parties and non-partisan figures have 124 seats. Changing or modifying any of the constitutional articles require to be approved by two thirds of the parliament.

The Arab Socialist al-Baath party, having been ruling the state since the 1963 coup, is a nationalist leftist secular party which aims at achieving unity between all Arab countries and building a democratic progressive society.

Syria has made a series of concessions, including cancelling the security court, lifting the emergency state and firing the government as a respond to the unprecedented pro-change protests that erupted ten weeks ago throughout the country.

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