Syria has published preliminary results from indirect elections for a new parliament - a key step that, however, raises concerns about the political inclusion of individual communities and transparency, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
During yesterday's vote, about 6,000 people who are members of regional electoral colleges voted for candidates from pre-approved lists - part of the process to fill nearly two-thirds of the seats in the 210-seat Syrian parliament.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will later appoint the remaining one-third of the lawmakers.
In the days leading up to the vote, analysts and some Syrians have expressed concerns that the process for electing a new parliament is too centralized and The cancellation of elections in some regions outside government control means that not all communities will be fairly represented.
According to preliminary results announced today, 119 lawmakers have already been elected. Syria's election commission did not specify how many votes they received, but said that candidates who were not elected had the right to appeal until 5 p.m. local time today (and Bulgarian time).
Six of the newly elected members of the Syrian parliament are women, election observers told Reuters. They also said that four of the newly elected lawmakers are representatives of religious minorities - including a Christian, an Ismaili Muslim and two Alawites - the religious community from which Assad came.
Another six are from ethnic minorities - three Turkmen and three Kurds, one of whom is a woman.
One observer described the new parliament as predominantly composed of Sunni Muslims, who are all male. He added that the short appeal period severely limits the opportunity to file objections and undermines the integrity of the process.
The authorities said they had resorted to an indirect election system rather than universal suffrage because of a lack of reliable population data following the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced millions.
Claiming security and political reasons, the authorities cancelled the elections in areas not controlled by the government - including the Kurdish-controlled north and north-west of Syria, as well as the province of Sweida, controlled by the Druze minority.
The cancelled elections in these areas will leave 21 parliamentary seats unfilled. It is not yet clear when elections will be held there.
Analysts said the 70 lawmakers to be appointed by al-Sharaa would be crucial to the level of diversity and inclusion of different communities in the first parliament since the fall of Assad.
The former president's parliament had slightly more seats - 250, two-thirds of which were held by his Baath party.
The last parliamentary elections in Syria were held in 2024, but were described as a "farce" by Assad's opponents. Women's representation during his rule, as well as under his father Hafez al-Assad, was also low. Women lawmakers made up just 6 percent to 13 percent of parliaments from 1981 until the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which keeps statistics on parliaments around the world.