Delay in selection of deputies in Kurdish and Druze regions

Sunday 24 August 2025 - 07:55

By: Sahili Aya

Delay in selection of deputies in Kurdish and Druze regions

The process of selecting deputies for Syria’s planned transitional parliament, scheduled for September, will be delayed in provinces with majority Druze and Kurdish populations, an electoral commission official announced on Saturday.

Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December after nearly 14 years of civil war, the new president, Ahmad al-Shareh — a former Islamist rebel leader — dissolved the existing parliament and issued a provisional constitutional declaration establishing a five-year transition period.

In June, a presidential decree created a 10-member electoral commission to oversee the designation of 140 representatives between September 15 and 20 through local committees. The remaining 70 deputies will be directly appointed by the president.

Critics argue that the process concentrates too much power in al-Shareh’s hands and fails to ensure adequate representation of Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious groups.

The vote has been postponed in Sweida province, home to a majority Druze population in the south, as well as in Raqqa and Hassakeh in the north and northeast, due to ongoing security challenges, according to commission member Nawar Najmeh, quoted by state agency SANA. Reserved seats will be held for these regions to be filled later, but only once the conditions allow elections under state control.

Sweida has been plagued by deadly intercommunal violence in recent months, while Raqqa and Hassakeh remain under the control of the Kurdish self-administration, which demands a decentralized governance system that Damascus opposes.

Under the transitional declaration, parliament will serve a renewable two-and-a-half-year mandate and exercise legislative authority until a permanent constitution is adopted and general elections are held.