ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s official electoral body on Sunday released the names of local committee members tasked with nominating members of the parliament in three government-held areas in north and northeast Syria (Rojava). The move follows a recent postponement of elections in these provinces, reportedly due to security concerns.
In a statement posted on its official Facebook page, Syria’s Higher Committee for the People’s Assembly Elections issued “a decision including the preliminary lists of members of the electoral bodies in Raqqa, [Gire Spi] Tal Abyad and [Sari Kani] Ras al-Ain.”
The Committee added that “appeals against the preliminary list would be accepted by the appeals committee at the Damascus Justice Center within two days” from the decision’s issuance on Sunday.
A member of the Committee, Mohammad Wali, told Rudaw in mid-September that in Raqqa, local committee members would be assigned to the town of Ma'adan - a government-held area.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish towns of Gire Spi and Sari Kani, located in the Raqqa and Hasaka provinces respectively, are currently under the control of Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian militia groups. These areas were seized during the 2019 military offensive - dubbed Operation Peace Spring - against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
In early September, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) cited Committee spokesperson Nawar Najmeh, as claiming that “the formation of sub-committees” in Ma’adan, Gire Spri and Sari Kani “came in response to the residents of these areas.”
“Considering they are under the control of the Syrian government, and due to the desire of their inhabitants to participate in the electoral process,” the decision was made, Najmeh said.
In late August, Syria’s electoral agency released the seat distribution, outlining the allocation of 210 parliamentary seats across Syria’s provinces, in the country’s upcoming legislative elections.
Hasaka and Raqqa were allocated ten and six seats, while the southern Druze-majority Suwayda province received three seats.
However, despite the allocation, the Committee previously announced that elections in Hasaka, Raqqa, and Suwayda will be postponed due to what it described as a “lack of a secure and stable environment.”
The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) administering those regions, has repeatedly rejected the electoral process since late August, calling it “exclusionary and undemocratic.”
The DAANES added that the election "does not reflect the will of the Syrian people,” and instead represents “a continuation of the policy of marginalization and exclusion.”
While some parliamentary seats for Hasaka and Raqqa are set to be filled, a large portion will likely remain vacant.
In early March, Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa approved a constitutional declaration allowing him to appoint one-third of the 210-member People’s Assembly.
While Committee spokesperson, Najmeh, previously suggested that some of the appointed lawmakers might represent Hasaka and Raqqa, Wali ruled out this possibility in a mid-September interview with Rudaw.
Syria is set to hold its first legislative elections on October 5th - the first of their kind since the early-December ouster of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad.
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