Syria’s Jihadi President Holds Invite-Only Legislative Election for 6,000 People

The government of Syria under former al-Qaeda jihadist President Ahmed al-Sharaa celebrated itself on Sunday for holding its first-ever election: an invite-only affair with hand-picked candidates meant to fill the seats in the country’s new “Syrian People’s Assembly.”

Sharaa, speaking following the vote on Sunday, conceded that the election was a first step, designed to be “suited to the current circumstances in Syria,” which limit democratic activity given the over decade-long civil war that concluded in December. The bureaucratic entity tasked with ensuring the election transpires fairly announced on Monday that it had tallied the results of the election but would give some time for candidates to contest any close races. Complete election results, multiple Middle Eastern outlets reported, are expected by the end of the week.

A successful and representative democratic process would be a key selling point for Sharaa to attract foreign investment. Sharaa assumed the presidency after leading Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist organization founded as an offshoot of al-Qaeda. HTS toppled the longstanding dictatorship of Bashar Assad in December, forcing Assad and his family into exile in Russia. Since then, Sharaa stopped using his jihadi name, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and began wearing suits and meeting Western leaders. Among those leaders

The regime-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) described the terms of the election on Saturday: the People’s Assembly will have 210 seats representing the whole of Syria. Sharaa will personally appoint people to hold a third of the seats, while the election this weekend will fill the other two-thirds of seats. The election featured 1,578 candidates, all requiring approval from Sharaa’s government, to be elected by about 6,000 people invited to participate as part of “regional electoral committees.” The candidates must also be members of these committees to file for candidate.

The government has reserved 14 percent of assembly seats under election for women. The presidential decree signed by Sharaa approving the elections also called for “social, demographic, and professional diversity,” though not with specific quotas. Individuals running must be confirmed not to be members of the armed forces or have a history of supporting the Assad regime, any “terrorist organizations, separatist movements, or foreign interference.” SANA did not specify if being a member of HTS counts as violating the ban on “terrorist organizations;” it also did not address the question of the longstanding autonomous Kurdish government in the nation’s north, which is associated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia largely responsible for the elimination of the Islamic State “caliphate” based in Raqqa in 2017.

While the government claimed to organize as broad of a space for elections throughout the country as possible, some of Syria’s most war-torn areas were excluded from the election entirely. According to the Kurdish outlet Rudaw, no voting took place in Raqqa – the former Islamic State stronghold – Hasaka, or Suwayda. Authorities blamed “a lack of secure and stable environment.”

Suwayda (Sweida) has been home to some of the most intense violence between regime-linked jihadis and the Druze minority since the HTS takeover. Druze groups have accused the government of attempting to seize their territory and called on neighboring Syria to protect them. Israel bombed Damascus in July to make a statement against the killing of Druze people near its border, but clashes have sporadically continued.

The Emirati newspaper The National reported that, inside Syria, there was no visible atmosphere of campaigning or elections.

“No rallies preceded the poll and there were no election manifestos or campaigns by any parties, amid an unclear political picture in the country,” the newspaper noted. One Syrian told the National plainly, “no one cares.”

Sharaa nonetheless celebrated the holding of any election whatsoever, given the shattered state of Syria as a country just ten months ago, as a significant success and something Syrians should be proud of. He insisted that the limited nature of the election was necessary and the event was “suited to the current circumstances,” as much of the nation remains in tatters. According to the United Nations refugee agency, at least 6 million Syrians are living abroad as refugees and another 7.4 million are internally displaced, making registering the general population to vote effectively impossible.

“Every Syrian must play a role in building the new country” SANA quoted Sharaa as saying in a nationally televised speech on Sunday. “As Syrians have consistently excelled in their achievements throughout history and recent years, we will continue to see new innovations and successes in the days to come.”

Sharaa insisted that he hoped running the country would bring “unity among Syrians” and the population would be fully represented. The jihadi president’s comments stand at odds with protests from the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political entity associated with the U.S.-friendly SDF, which condemned the election as a “farce.”

The elections, the group said in a statement this weekend, “do not express the will of the Syrian people and do not represent all regions and communities in the country.”

“They were a political charade unbecoming of Syria’s rich history and the sacrifices of its people who struggled to build a new Syria based on democracy, freedom, and true participation,” the SDC leadership declared.

“No electoral process can be legitimate unless it is conducted with the participation and representation of all Syrians, both at home and abroad, and under international supervision that guarantees integrity and transparency, on the path to ending the division and achieving a just and lasting peace in Syria,” their statement concluded.

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