Syrians are about to complete a new and important step in the country's transition after the overthrow of the Bashar Assad regime last year – the formation of a transitional legislative assembly.
On October 5, the country will hold its first elections after more than four decades of authoritarian rule by the Assad family and a decade of brutal civil war.
The date of the vote was announced at a time when the government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa is seeking to restore state institutions and gain legitimacy amid regional and international efforts to stabilize the war-torn country, Al Jazeera noted.
But the process of electing a new Syrian parliament is far from simple, and there are many contradictions surrounding it, Deutsche Welle adds.
A complex election process
Despite the announcement of elections, not every Syrian will go to the ballot box, and there will be no political parties or election posters. Instead, votes will be cast by various committees, which is why the country's first elections in decades are being described as "indirect," Deutsche Welle explains.
"The reality in Syria does not allow for traditional elections, given the presence of millions of internally and externally displaced people, the lack of official documents and the fragility of the legal structure," the Syrian interim government said in a statement at the end of June, in response to questions about why the elections would be indirect.
The process of electing the new People's Council (the name of the Syrian parliament - ed.) will take place in several stages.
The People's Council of Syria was dissolved by the new Syrian authorities, appointed by the Islamist coalition that came to power in December 2024. The future parliament, tasked with exercising legislative functions for a period of five years, must to have 210 members: 140 appointed by local committees controlled by the electoral commission and 70 appointed directly by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, AFP writes. Nineteen deputies representing three regions in which elections will not be held, however, have not yet been elected. Thus, in practice, on October 5, the names of 121 members of parliament will become clear.
In June, Syria's transitional government appointed an 11-member Supreme Election Commission for the People's Council, which in turn appointed the so-called subcommittees for the elections in the country's 62 electoral districts.
In the next stage, the various regional subcommittees directly appointed between 30 and 50 people who will represent each mandate in their district. These people will form an "electoral college" - a group of voters tasked with choosing deputies from among themselves. The entire electoral college in Syria will number between 6,000 and 7,000 people.
In selecting these people, the subcommittees were to consider a variety of characteristics, including qualifications such as university degrees and professions, – people who were active and well-known in their communities – and diversity, as well as ensuring that the group included displaced persons, people with disabilities, and former prisoners of the Assad regime.
In addition to other qualifications such as age and nationality, members of the electoral college must not have been part of the previous regime (unless they defected during the civil war), served in the security forces, or have a criminal record. Twenty percent of the members of the electoral college must be women.
Women in Syrian governance
According to a report by the Syrian NGO "Musawa", under Assad, women made up just 10-12% of members of parliament between 2007 and 2022. Their participation was even lower at the local level, where in 2011 they made up 2% of members of local and municipal councils, and in 2022 they reached 11-12%, according to the organization's study, cited in the publication of the "Atlantic Council".
Since the fall of Assad, progress in terms of women's political participation has been limited. The interim government includes only one female minister. The Preparatory Committee for National Dialogue and the Committee for Drafting the Constitution - transitional bodies tasked with carrying out important tasks during the transition - each include two women out of seven members (30%). The current elections provide an opportunity for women, despite resistance from conservative parts of Syrian society and the authorities themselves, the publication notes.
Some religious minorities are deprived of elections
The new parliament is expected to "lay the foundations for a broader democratic process" after Assad was ousted in December after nearly 14 years of civil war, Syria's state news agency SANA said. But critics warn that the current system does not adequately represent Syria's marginalized communities.
The authorities had initially said the vote would take place in September. But the election process was postponed by several days, with officials saying too many candidates had expressed interest in joining the electoral college.
Even after the new date was announced - October 5 - there will be no elections in parts of Syria - in the province of Sweida, which is dominated by Syria's Druze minority, as well as in parts of Raqqa and Hasaka provinces, which are under the control of Syria's Kurdish minority. These regions are to be represented by 19 candidates who will not be elected to the new parliament at this stage.
The Syrian transitional government has said that the elections in these regions have been postponed for security reasons. There has been intercommunal and religious violence there in recent months, in which thousands of people have died. But in reality, the elections have been postponed because the Syrian government does not actually control these regions - they are under the control of the Druze and Kurds, notes "Deutsche Welle".
"Elections are a sovereign issue that can only be resolved in areas that are fully under the control of the government," High Commission spokesman Nawar Najmeh said in July regarding the situation.
On a public level, the exclusion of regions such as Sweida, Hasaka and Raqqa due to insecurity or a lack of political consensus raises serious questions about the representativeness of the elections. It will be difficult to speak of a parliament without representation from key regions outside the government's control as a truly national institution, writes the weekly "Arab Weekly".
Civil society experts have warned that this exclusion could deepen divisions and weaken prospects for national reconciliation at a time when Syria urgently needs initiatives to overcome differences between its various communities.
Concerns about presidential power
The final lists of candidates were published on September 18, SANA reported. Any citizen had three days to appeal any of the candidates they believed should not be included in the list. The election campaign itself is not public — it must last a week before the vote and is conducted only among members of the electoral college. Finally, on election day, the entire electoral college will vote for 121 members of the new Syrian parliament from among its own ranks.
The election process includes measures designed to increase trust, including the distribution of seats by region, appeals and objections stages, and the creation of local committees to oversee the election of electoral college representatives. In practice, however, concerns remain about the susceptibility of these mechanisms to manipulation, especially given the lack of strong independent oversight and the president's broad powers, which allow him to appoint a third of the members and issue decrees with the force of law, notes "Arab Weekly".
After the election process is complete, the new parliament will be joined by 70 more deputies, directly elected by the country's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former rebel leader who took over the role after his Islamist movement "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" (HTS) led the assault to oust Bashar al-Assad last December. This framework raises doubts about whether the elections will actually lead to a parliament capable of exercising power or simply a facade that legitimizes the executive branch, the publication notes.
Representative elections or farce
"On paper, the electoral process introduces modest but significant improvements with multiple consultative phases, appeal mechanisms and steps to increase women's participation," Haid Haid, a Syria analyst and senior expert at the Paris-based "Arab Initiative for Reform", told "Deutsche Welle" earlier this month. International observers have also been invited to monitor the process.
Furthermore, the Supreme Committee is more diverse than other state bodies and is not dominated by members of "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham", Haid said. But the process is "overshadowed by structural ambiguities and unresolved issues that make it vulnerable to manipulation", he said, adding that this could lead to a lack of trust in society.
Media reports from Syria suggest that many Syrians recognize that there is currently no way to hold direct elections. A recent survey conducted by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Qatar between mid-July and mid-August found that 57 percent of nearly 4,000 Syrians surveyed considered the political situation to be positive.
But other Syrians are far more critical, arguing that the tightly controlled process is a "superficial farce" - a way to legitimize the transitional government without seeking genuine consensus or democracy. Some of the most vocal critics of these elections are members of Syria's minorities. In recent weeks, representatives of various minority groups have published letters or statements criticizing the process and calling it illegitimate.
Earlier last week, 14 different Syrian civil society groups also published their position paper recommending changes to the process, arguing that various aspects of the elections simply give President Al-Sharaa too much control over both the election process and its outcome – the People’s Council. For example, under Syria’s interim constitution, presidential decrees can only be overturned by a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. That’s why Al-Sharaa’s 70 directly elected deputies will be so important – if they only represent his interests, it will be very difficult to achieve a two-thirds majority to act against him in parliament.
There is also criticism about the role that the new parliament will play once it is elected. It will be tasked primarily with revising a number of old laws, passing new laws to open up the country, drafting a new constitution, preparing for direct elections within the next three to five years, and ratifying treaties that could reshape Syria's foreign policy. Internationally, some observers see the elections as a test of the Syrian government's willingness to signal its intentions for reform, potentially paving the way for incremental economic support or diplomatic recognition.
Analysts suggest that even a partial success in the elections, by ensuring some degree of pluralism and transparency, could strengthen the government's position in the face of a growing economic and humanitarian crisis, especially given the collapse of infrastructure and the deterioration of public services.
On the other hand, political transition experts warn that the continued dominance of the executive branch over parliament and the lack of genuine citizen participation in lawmaking will undermine both domestic and external credibility in reform efforts.