Damascus moves to seat first parliament since Assad’s fall
DAMASCUS — Syria took its first steps toward a new political order on Sunday as members of local committees gathered in the capital to select representatives for a transitional parliament — the first such body since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad last December.
The vote, held at the National Library — once named after Assad — marks a symbolic turning point in a country battered by more than thirteen years of civil war. Yet the process has already drawn sharp criticism for consolidating the authority of interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose coalition led the campaign that forced Assad from power.
The new 210-member assembly will serve a renewable 30-month mandate under a temporary constitution announced in March. Sharaa will directly appoint 70 representatives, while the rest are being chosen by local committees handpicked by an electoral commission that he also named.
That concentration of power has led rights groups to denounce the process as stage-managed. “Sharaa can effectively shape a parliamentary majority composed of individuals he selected or ensured loyalty from,” more than a dozen organizations warned last month.
Entire regions remain outside the process. The Druze-majority province of Sweida, scarred by sectarian violence over the summer, and the Kurdish-held northeast will see their 32 seats left vacant until Damascus regains control.
Roughly 6,000 participants are taking part in the selection, with more than 1,500 candidates on the ballot — only 14 percent of them women. Among them is Syrian-American Henry Hamra, the first Jewish candidate to run for parliament in Syria since the 1940s.
Officials say the body will shoulder weighty responsibilities, including ratifying international agreements and overseeing reconstruction. “This will lead Syria into a new phase,” said Hala al-Qudsi, a member of the Damascus electoral committee.
Still, many Syrians view the process with ambivalence. Louay al-Arfi, a 77-year-old retiree in Damascus, voiced cautious support: “It’s a necessity in the transitional phase, but we want direct elections to follow.”
Preliminary tallies began Sunday evening, with final results expected Monday. Whether this assembly proves to be a true bridge to democracy — or a consolidation of one man’s power — remains the question hanging over Syria’s uncertain future.
