Syria to pick out members of first post-Assad parliament in oblique vote

[ad_1] Syria will choose members of its first post-Assad parliament on Sunday in a course of criticised as undemocratic, with a 3rd of the members appointed by interim chief Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The meeting's formation is ready to consolidate the ability of Sharaa, whose Islamist forces led a coalition that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after greater than 13 years of civil conflict and 5 a long time of one-family rule.

In keeping with the organising committee, greater than 1,500 candidates -- simply 14 % of them girls -- are working for the meeting, which may have a renewable 30-month mandate.

Sharaa is to nominate 70 representatives out of the 210-member physique.

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<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/c0c10c2e-998a-11f0-ab5f-005056a90284/w:1280/p:16x9/EN-20250924-223115-224256-CS.jpg" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/c0c10c2e-998a-11f0-ab5f-005056a90284/w:388/p:16x9/EN-20250924-223115-224256-CS.jpg 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/c0c10c2e-998a-11f0-ab5f-005056a90284/w:720/p:16x9/EN-20250924-223115-224256-CS.jpg 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/c0c10c2e-998a-11f0-ab5f-005056a90284/w:1024/p:16x9/EN-20250924-223115-224256-CS.jpg 1024w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/c0c10c2e-998a-11f0-ab5f-005056a90284/w:1280/p:16x9/EN-20250924-223115-224256-CS.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 639px) calc(100vw - 32px), (max-width: 1076px) calc(100vw - 44px), 850px" width="1280" height="720" alt="A PROPOS" loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> A PROPOS © FRANCE 24 The opposite two-thirds might be chosen by native committees appointed by the electoral fee, which itself was appointed by Sharaa.

However southern Syria's Druze-majority Sweida province, which suffered sectarian bloodshed in July, and the nation's Kurdish-held northeast are excluded from the method for now as they're exterior Damascus's management, and their 32 seats will stay empty.

"I assist the authorities and I am able to defend them, however these aren't actual elections," stated Louay al-Arfi, 77, a retired civil servant sitting with pals at a Damascus cafe.

"It is a necessity within the transitional section, however we would like direct elections" to observe, he advised AFP.

The brand new authorities dissolved Syria's rubber-stamp legislature after taking energy.

Below a brief structure introduced in March, the incoming parliament will train legislative capabilities till a everlasting structure is adopted and new elections are held.

Sharaa has stated it could be unimaginable to organise direct elections now, noting the big variety of Syrians who lack documentation after tens of millions fled overseas or had been displaced internally throughout the nation's civil conflict.

'Not elections' Round 6,000 persons are collaborating in Sunday's choice course of.

Preliminary outcomes are anticipated to emerge after it ends, with the ultimate listing of names to be introduced on Monday.

Below the foundations, candidates should not be "supporters of the previous regime" and should not promote secession or partition.

These working embrace Syrian-American Henry Hamra, the primary Jewish candidate because the Nineteen Forties.

Rights teams have criticised the choice course of, saying it concentrates energy in Sharaa's palms and lacks illustration for the nation's ethnic and non secular minorities.

In a joint assertion final month, greater than a dozen non-governmental organisations stated the method means Sharaa "can successfully form a parliamentary majority composed of people he chosen or ensured loyalty from", which risked "undermining the precept of pluralism important to any real democratic course of".

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"You'll be able to name the method what you want, however not elections," stated Bassam Alahmad, government director of the France-based Syrians for Reality and Justice, among the many teams that signed the assertion.

At a gathering in Damascus this week, candidate Mayssa Halwani, 48, stated criticism was regular.

"The federal government is new to energy and freedom is new for us," she stated.

Nishan Ismail, 40, a trainer within the Kurdish-controlled northeast, stated "elections might have been a brand new political begin" after Assad's fall, however "the marginalisation of quite a few areas exhibits that the requirements of political participation should not revered".

Negotiations on integrating the Kurds' civil and army establishments into the brand new central authorities have stalled, with Damascus rejecting requires decentralisation.

In southern Syria's Druze-held metropolis of Sweida, activist Burhan Azzam, 48, expressed the same sentiment.

The authorities "have ended political life" in Syria, he stated, including that the choice course of "does not respect the essential guidelines of democracy".