Syria holds first parliamentary elections since end of civil war

Syria will hold its first parliamentary elections Sunday, 10 months after rebel groups led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, the current president, overthrew Bashar Assad to end a brutal civil war.

Some have welcomed the elections as a step toward democracy after years of dictatorship under the Assad family, who ruled the country with an iron fist for more than five decades.

But others argue that the vote is unrepresentative and that al-Sharaa is using it to consolidate power, especially given that he will appoint a third of the 210 members of parliament directly.

The election is not being held across the entire country. In the northeast, the parts of Raqqa and Hasakah provinces that are run by a Kurdish-led administration will be excluded.

And the entire southern province of Sweida, where hundreds were killed this summer in clashes between Bedouin tribes and members of the Druze religious minority, will also be left out.

Although it is unclear how much authority the parliament will ultimately have, for a country emerging from decades of dictatorship, it could represent a milestone.

Here is what to know about the vote.

How will the election be run?

Syrians will not vote for candidates directly, because the government says the country still faces significant administrative challenges since the end of the civil war. For instance, many people do not have identification and are still displaced from their homes.

Al-Sharaa's government set up an electoral committee to run the process. The committee appointed a number of regional bodies that selected members of local electoral councils, which vetted candidates. The councils will vote Sunday for candidates that will account for two-thirds of the new members of parliament. The president will appoint the remaining 70 lawmakers directly.

The results of the election are expected to be announced Monday.

Can anyone run for parliament?

After decades of dictatorship and the brutal civil war, the electoral committee ruled that many in the country were not permitted to run for parliament. This included anyone who was associated with or was a supporter of the Assad regime, such as former parliamentarians, unless they had previously resigned or defected.

The list of those excluded from running also include: anyone with a criminal record; anyone under the age of 25; anyone involved in terrorist organizations; and anyone who has advocated separatism or partition or sought foreign intervention.

Those who did not have Syrian citizenship before 2011, the year the civil war started, were also excluded. One likely reason is that Assad gave citizenship to some foreign fighters, many of them in Iran-backed militias, that supported his regime.

Is the election expected to move Syria closer to democracy?

Some groups do not think so.

The Kurdish-led autonomous government that still controls much of northeast Syria has criticized the elections as "an attempt to reproduce the exclusionary policies that have governed Syria for decades." It says the vote will not be representative and will sideline many communities, and it has urged the international community and the United Nations not to recognize the elections.

The Kurdish leadership had been in negotiations to integrate its military and civilian operations with al-Sharaa's government. Those negotiations have stalled.

Samy Akil, a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, a Washington think tank, said the vote was being rushed.

It is also unclear how much independent authority the parliament will have in enacting laws or acting as a check on the power of al-Sharaa and his Cabinet. The government has already shown signs of not adhering to new legal provisions set out in the interim constitution it passed in March, Akil said, like seeking parliamentary approval for some of its decisions.

"It's a process of rubber-stamping and projecting legitimacy, at least internally," Akil said.

Given that al-Sharaa will appoint many members of parliament himself, the election process could also be a way to reward some people that al-Sharaa sees as politically important, he added. They may not be loyal enough to be appointed to key ministerial positions, but the president could give them a seat in parliament.

Despite those concerns, some argue that an election shows progress.

Civil society groups that have been involved in training the electoral colleges have defended the process, saying it is the best one possible under the circumstances.

"Of course, we would all hope for open elections," said Abdullah El-Hafi, director of the Local Administration Councils Unit, a governance advocacy group.

But, he said, the country lacks much of the infrastructure needed to hold them, like unified civil registries or even voting laws.

El-Hafi added that a similar electoral model had been used in countries going through similar political transitions, with partial success. "It is not the ideal situation, but it is the situation that is possible now," he said.

Sumaya Hilal, a pharmacist from Damascus who is a member of the electoral council, said it was momentous for recently displaced Syrians like her to now be sitting inside the parliament building.

"Here we are, on the verge of laying the first foundation for building a state of law," she said later in a text message. "We dreamed of voting for whomever we wanted.

"It is a great responsibility, and our consolation is that the Syrians are determined to succeed," she added.

How is Syria's broader political transition going?

In March, al-Sharaa announced the formation of a caretaker government and named close allies to the crucial ministries of defense, foreign affairs and the interior.

They are expected to remain until full elections can be held, which al-Sharaa has said could take up to four years.

Even as the interim government tries to move away from the brutality of the Assad family's rule, there are concerns that al-Sharaa's style of governing is rooted in authoritarianism.

An interim constitution that was announced in March maintained the strong presidential system and granted executive power to al-Sharaa, as well as the authority to appoint Supreme Court judges and a third of the members of parliament. Al-Sharaa's government includes some ministers from minority groups and one woman, but he has relied on a small circle of loyalists from the years when he led the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The lack of wide representation and the concentration of decision-making among allies has added to distrust of him and his government, especially among religious and ethnic minority communities such as the Kurds, Christians, Alawites and Druze.