Syria holds first election after Assad, but not in all provinces

Syria will hold its first parliamentary elections on Sunday after the fall of Bashar al -Assad, against the backdrop of concerns about inclusion and consistent delays.

There will be no direct vote for the National Assembly, which will be responsible for the legislation during a transitional period.

Instead, the “election colleges” will choose representatives for two -thirds of 210 seats. Temporary President Ahmed al -Sharaa will appoint the others.

Longtime former President Assad was removed by Sharaa’s forces 10 months ago after a 13-year civil war.

Authorities say they have postponed polls for security reasons to two Kurdish -controlled provinces and a third who saw deadly fighting between the government forces and the militias of Druz.

The clashes in July celebrated the last hearth of sectarian violence in Syria after the removal of Assad.

In a speech at the UN General Assembly last week – the first of the Syrian president after 60 years – Sharaa promised to bring the court all responsible for the bloodshed, as well as those who performed the atrocities at Assad.

He also promised that Syria is now “restoring itself by creating a new state, building institutions and laws that guarantee the rights of all without exception.”

The polls on Sunday are controlled by the Supreme Committee for the elections for the National Assembly of the Syrian National Assembly, whose 11 members were elected by the President in June.

The number of seats distributed in each of the 60 districts is based on the census data collected in 2010 – the year before the country went down in a civil war, with more than 600,000 people killed and displaced another 12 million.

Delaying the election in the three provinces – RAQQA, Hassakeh and Suweida – means that electoral colleges in only 50 out of 60 districts will choose representatives for about 120 seats on Sunday.

There will be more than 1,500 candidates, who should also be members of the election college. Proponents of the “former regime or terrorist organizations” were banned by membership, as well as the defenders of the “secession, division or search for foreign intervention”.

At least 20% of the members of the election college had to be women. But there were no minimal quotas for women legislators, nor for those of many ethnic and religious minorities in the country.

The president will choose representatives for 70 seats outside the electoral colleges.

Last month, 14 groups of Syrian civil society expressed concern that it meant that it would have a direct influence on the composition of parliament.

“This setting makes parliament susceptible to the balance of power, which does not reflect the will of the voters and undermines its intended representative nature, allowing the executive body to dominate an institution that must be independent and reflect the popular will,” a joint statement warns.

They also said that the president’s direct and indirect influence on the Higher Committee and the Election Colleges made the election “symbolic at the best of a case, deprived of their democratic purpose to provide representation and accountability.”

Sharaa defended the way the election is held. “As a transitional period, there is a difficulty to hold national elections due to the loss of documents, and half of the population is outside Syria, also without documents,” he said in a television interview, citing millions of refugees who have not returned.

The Supreme Committee said it was not possible to hold elections in RAQQA, Hassakeh and Suweida because of “security and political situation”. The 20 places distributed for them will remain free until polls can be held.

RAQQA and Hassakeh are mainly controlled by the Kurdish, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) police alliance, which is over the temporary government for the implementation of March to integrate all military and civic institutions in the country.

Thoureya Mustafa of the Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) Party said the election process and delay show that the government has the same mentality “as the previous authoritarian mentality.”

“We see the exclusion and refusal of the rights of the Syrian people as elections. Therefore, the Syrian temporary government does not represent the will of the Syrian people,” she told a Reuters News Agency.

The government also has a little influence in Subitida, where the tensions with the main population of a friend remain high after sectarian violence there three months ago.

Violence exploded when Druze Militias encountered the Sunni Bedouin tribes, which made the government send their strength to intervene. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the fighting, most of whom are Druzi, according to observation groups.

Husus in the middle of the Druza Damascus in South Damascus, Husla, a resident of South Damascus, rejected the election process as “sooner as a meeting.”

“The National Assembly must be chosen by the people and this should represent people,” he told Reuters. “We know nothing today. We saw no lists or representatives. We saw nothing.”