Syrians cast their votes in the country's first parliamentary election since the fall of Bashar al-Assad [Image by Prensa Latina]
(The Post News) – Syria’s election commission on Monday reported to preliminary results of the country’s first parliamentary election since political upheaval last year, a benchmark on its fragile post-Assad reconstruction, but one tainted by contention regarding fairness, representation, and the turnout.
The Supreme Parliamentary Elections Committee declared that the appeals should be filed by evening, allowing for challenges “at all stages of the process, from campaigns to vote counting.” Officially, Sunday’s election passed peacefully in most places, with slight setbacks and some sporadic campaign violations.
1,578 people had contested the election, among them women numbering approximately 14% of the total. Six women had been elected, though just 3% of the total, and it was likely that President Ahmed al-Sharaa would appoint other women to the 210-member People’s Assembly to meet a target of 20% gender representation.
We were anxious to have all aspects represented, and we were also anxious to have women as part of the People’s Assembly,” said Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, president of the High Elections Commission. “Unfortunately, women’s representation was only 3% after counting.”
Little Representation for Women and Minorities
Among the winners voted into office were Lina Aizouki and five female counterparts, including Mai Khalouf, Rankin Abdo, Nour Jandali, Momena Arabo, and Rola Daya. Minority representation included an Ismaili Muslim, two Alawites, three Turkmen, and three Kurds, according to verified results from observers and The New Arab.
However, observers described the parliament as “overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim and male.”
The hybrid system, whereby 140 would indirectly be elected by regional electoral colleges and 70 would directly be appointed by the president, was denounced by opposition parties and pundits as concentrating power in the hands of the executive.
“The shape has led many to describe the vote as ‘selections, not elections,'” one pundit said. “Short period of appeal and absence of universal suffrage undermines public trust.”
The government defended the system as a temporary necessity, citing instability and the absence of up-to-date population statistics after more than a decade of war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.
The Kurdish-controlled northeast and Suweida, a province still outside the control of the government, each had their 21 allocated seats empty, and officials refused to indicate when elections would be conducted in them.
A candidate who is Alawite from Tartous was assassinated over the weekend, an event the government attributed to “remnants of the former Assad regime.”
The Syrian Democratic Council, ruling some of the northeast, denounced the election as a “farce,” stating it only further entrenched national divisions.
“Syrians aspire to actual elections that are a true expression of their will and voice for all Syrians,” the SDC stated. “No process is legitimate if not conducted under the participation of all Syrians under international observation.”
Sharaa Calls Vote “Historic”
President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has overshadowed the political transition since Bashar al-Assad’s fall ten months ago, described the elections as “historic,” portraying them as a step towards democratic rule after decades of authoritarian rule.
Experts, however, caution that while the election is a symbolic breaking from Assad’s rule, it falls far short of a true democratic election.
It was a blemished election, of course, since many even in developed countries are,” Dr. Noor Ghazal Aswad, political scientist at the University of Alabama, said. “But it is a start. Syrians are beginning to deal with politics as something that belongs to them and not to the intelligence brigades or to one family in charge.”.
For Syrians, for most of whom, the election has been hope and reserve, a cautious beginning for a country still to recover from war, fragmentation, and exile.
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