Syria - 2025 Election
Syria held its first parliamentary election under its new administration on 5 October, state news agency SANA said 21 September 2025. The new assembly is expected to lay the groundwork for a broader democratic process following the ousting of Bashar al Assad last December after nearly 14 years of civil war. It will also be tasked with approving legislation aimed at overhauling decades of state-controlled economic policies and ratifying treaties that could reshape Syria’s foreign policy alliances. Voting for the 210-member People’s Assembly will take place “across all electoral districts,” SANA said. A third of the People’s Assembly seats will be appointed by President Ahmed al Sharaa. In March 2025, Syria issued a constitutional declaration to guide the interim period under Sharaa’s leadership. The assembly's formation is set to consolidate the power of Sharaa, whose Islamist forces led a coalition that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war and five decades of one-family rule. According to the organising committee, more than 1,500 candidates -- just 14 percent of them women -- are running for the assembly, which will have a renewable 30-month mandate. Under the temporary constitution announced in March, the incoming parliament will exercise legislative functions until a permanent constitution is adopted and new elections are held. Sharaa had said it would be impossible to organise direct elections now, noting the large number of Syrians who lack documentation after millions fled abroad or were displaced internally during the country's civil war. Syrian electors selected members of its first post-Assad parliament in a process criticised as undemocratic, with a third of the members appointed by interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. According to the organising committee, more than 1,500 candidates -- just 14 percent of them women -- are running for the assembly, which will have a renewable 30-month mandate. But southern Syria's Druze-majority Sweida province, which suffered sectarian bloodshed in July, and the country's Kurdish-held northeast are excluded from the process for now as they are outside Damascus's control, and their 32 seats will remain empty. Negotiations on integrating the Kurds' civil and military institutions into the new central government have stalled, with Damascus rejecting calls for decentralisation Around 6,000 people took part in the selection process. Preliminary results were expected to emerge after it ends, with the final list of names to be announced the next day. Under the rules, candidates must not be "supporters of the former regime" and must not promote secession or partition. Those running include Syrian-American Henry Hamra, the first Jewish candidate since the 1940s. Rights groups have criticised the selection process, saying it concentrates power in Sharaa's hands and lacks representation for the country's ethnic and religious minorities. In a joint statement last month, more than a dozen non-governmental organisations said the process means Sharaa "can effectively shape a parliamentary majority composed of individuals he selected or ensured loyalty from", which risked "undermining the principle of pluralism essential to any genuine democratic process". "You can call the process what you like, but not elections," said Bassam Alahmad, executive director of the France-based Syrians for Truth and Justice, among the groups that signed the statement. The elections could have been a new political start" after Assad's fall, but "the marginalisation of numerous regions shows that the standards of political participation are not respected.
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