Syria postpones selection of lawmakers from Druze, Kurdish-held areas

DAMASCUS – A Syrian official said on Aug 23 that the selection process planned for a transitional parliament in September will be postponed in Druze-majority Sweida and two Kurdish-held provinces.

After toppling long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024,

Syria’s new authorities, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa

, dissolved the Assad-era Parliament and adopted a temporary Constitution for a five-year transition.

The interim charter has been criticised for concentrating power in Mr Sharaa’s hands after decades of autocracy under Mr Assad and for failing to reflect Syria’s ethnic and religious diversity.

The selection of the transitional Parliament is planned for Sept 15 to 20. Appointed local bodies will pick two-thirds of the 210 lawmakers and Mr Sharaa will name the rest.

But the process will be postponed in Druze-majority Sweida province in the south, and in Raqa and Hasakeh in the north and north-east “until the appropriate conditions and a safe environment are available”, the official Sana news agency quoted organising committee member Nawar Najmeh as saying.

Sweida province saw deadly sectarian clashes in July, with access to the province still difficult and the security situation tense.

A Kurdish administration largely controls Raqa and Hasakeh provinces.

Implementation of a March 10 deal on integrating Kurdish institutions into those of the central government has been held up by differences between the two sides.

The postponement is due to “the security challenges these provinces are witnessing” and is “to ensure fair representation” in those areas, Mr Najmeh said.

Seats will be “reserved” in the transitional legislative body for the three provinces to fill at a later date, he said, adding that the selection process can only go ahead in “territories controlled by the state”.

The new body will have a renewable mandate of 30 months. AFP