Syria chooses the first parliament after Assad

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Syria is conducting indirect elections to choose its first parliament since former President Bashar al -Assad was overthrown last year, as he presented a test for the interim government’s commitment to a comprehensive political transition.

On Sunday’s choice of members of Parliament is a few loud months dominated by sectarian clashes and the suspended negotiations between Damascus and the minorities in the country that undermined the early good intentions of President Ahmed Al -Sharra.

Nearly two -thirds of the People’s Association members are elected by the regional electoral colleges consisting of people who were chosen with the approval of a committee appointed by Shara, with the appointment of a third directly by the president.

The Syrians, full of the Assad regime, last December, was initially ready to develop fears of the Islamic ideology of the Shaya movement that flew the Levant, but fears launched it as the president seeks to unify control of the broken nation.

While Shara has many technocrats in the Council of Ministers, Kutiter was appointed from the companies affiliated with the main roles in its administration, the judicial and security sector. The Sunni Islamic Movement of the President was once subordinate to al -Qaeda and was appointed by a terrorist group by Western countries.

Syria has held regular elections under 50 years of Assad’s rule, which was widely considered a sun. However, critics said that on Sunday elections were very centralized and non -democratic.

“The operation is far from idealism and the authorities have tried to exercise a lot of control,” said Malik Al -Abd, a Syrian analyst. “Given that the deputies will be immunity and privileges to say what they want, they are afraid to obtain strong Sunni representatives that can become an organized opposition in all the name.”

The sub -committees designated by the National Electoral Commission have chosen about 6000 regional voters across the country to elect about 120 members of the 210 -seats Association.

Another 20 seats will remain empty because the government has been postponed indefinitely in the northeastern regions controlled by the Syrian democratic forces led by the Kurdish as well as the southern province of Sweden, which is controlled by armed factions of the Druze minority.

The SR government resolved all political parties, most of which were closely related to the Assad regime, and there was no system in force to record new parties, so the candidates are running as individuals.

The authorities stress this regime because millions of Syrians were displaced during the 14 years of the civil war and many have no longer documents.

“The operation was not perfect, but it is the most realistic in the current stage.”

But critics who accept these elections through global voting have not yet been possible to say that the current process is very transparent. They also condemned the wheel in which the elections were organized, which gave the candidates only a few days to present themselves and their platforms, and remove the unjustified electoral committee to some of the candidates.

There is no stake for minority women or legislators. The Syrian government news agency SANA said that women make up only 14 percent of the 1578 candidates. In some areas, women made up 30-40 percent of the candidates, while in other cases no women ran.

Experts said that the regime is likely to result in a result dominated by men from the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria. Shay, who emphasized the obligation of totalitarianism, can use the third of which is to appoint minorities and women, but he can also choose to appoint candidates that would help him focus power.

Abdo said: “Despite this process, the silver lining is that there are small green buds of politics that appear,” noting that some of the candidates were making personal appeals to support religious institutions and businessmen in the main cities. “It is still a very elite and must be aware of the participation, but at least it happens.”

Some polling stations closed on Sunday afternoon to start counting the polling. The results of the votes of the college were expected to be announced on Monday.