Syrian President Bashar Assad endorsed on Tuesday the new constitution which has been supported by Syrians during Sunday referendum.

 

Syrian President Bashar Assad endorsed on Tuesday the new constitution which has been supported by Syrians during Sunday referendum.

Assad issued a decree in which the new constitution came into effecet since February 27, official news Agency reported.

On Mondaythe results of the referendum were announced, with high percent of the voters said yes to the new constitution.

Al-Shaar during press conference on Monday

89.4% of the 57.4% who vote on Sunday referendum agreed to the constitution, Interior Ministry announced.

In a press conference, Minister of Interior Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar said that that 8,376,447 citizens voted in the referendum on the new draft constitution, which constitutes 57.4% of the 14,589,954 eligible voters, with 7,490,319 (89.4% of voters) agreeing to it while 753,208 (9% of voters) didn't agree.

He said that there were 132,920 invalid ballots, which makes up 1.6% of votes.

Al-Shaar hailed the turnout as good “despite the threats and intimidation by armed terrorist groups in some areas and the accompanying distortion and instigation campaigns by media”, official news agency, SANA, quoted him as saying.

The announcement of the results came just after the European Union adopted sanctions on Syria’s central bank and froze the assets of several Syrian government officials.

The foreign ministers of the 27 EU countries, in a meeting in Brussels on Monday, also banned the purchase of gold, precious metals and diamonds from the country, and banned Syrian cargo flights from the European Union.