Syrian referendum on single-party rule

• Syria's President has decreed to hold a referendum later this month for a new Constitution that would effectively end nearly 50 years of single party rule
• Under the new charter, freedom is “a sacred right” and “the people will govern the people” in a multi-party democratic system based on Islamic law, state television reported.
• The proposed Constitution does away with Article 8 of the old charter which declared the Baath party, in power since 1963, as the “leader of the state and society”