A strong opposition party must compete in the race

The argument

A strong opposition party will not only allow the smooth running of elections, it will also continue to make sure the government is always held accountable to the electorate. Those are two different functions performed by the same institution, and both are missing in Syria. An election supervises the transfer of power only if there is someone credible to transfer it to; accountability between elections exists only if there is an organised body whose job it is to scrutinise and to be ready to replace the incumbent. An opposition party would safeguard the rights and freedoms of the Syrian people, which they have been deprived of for a long time. A fair and just state can only be achieved when one political party does not hold all the power, because power that faces no organised alternative has no reason to answer for its conduct. In Syria, the Assad regime holds military and political power far greater than any opposing forces, and that imbalance is not a detail of the current situation but the thing that would hollow out any election held under it. Voting conducted against no serious rival ratifies the incumbent rather than testing him, and can be pointed to afterwards as evidence of consent. The only path to a fair election and a truly democratic state would be if the Syrian people had realistic options. When the choice is between one of a multitude of small rebel groups and an all-powerful regime, there is not really a choice at all: fragmented opposition divides the vote of everyone seeking change while presenting no one who could plausibly govern, so even voters who want an alternative have no way to express it. That is why free and fair elections require more than the act of voting. If a strong enough opposition party were to emerge, it would set Syria on a better path to democracy by giving the people a choice.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Opposition parties are why there is so much conflict in the first place; a stronger one will simply mean more intense conflict. Two opposing parties with relatively equal power will not lead to a fair and free election, it will lead to more violence than ever before. The violence of the conflict in Syria is already enormous, and giving one party more power will simply lead to more expansive violence. Diplomacy or de-weaponizing the regime would be much more effective than a powerful opposition party.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] A strong opposition party will escalate the conflict, not end it.