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29-07-2025
DAMASCUS: Syria will hold parliamentary elections in September, said the head of a body tasked with organizing the election process.
Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, chairman of the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections, told state news agency SANA on Sunday that elections will take place between September 15 and 20.
They will be the first to take place under the country’s new authorities after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December.
One-third of the 210 seats will be appointed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, with the rest to be elected.
In a recent interview with the Erem News site, another member of the elections committee, Hassan al-Daghim, said an electoral college will be set up in each of Syria’s provinces to vote for the elected seats.
Increasingly divided
A temporary constitution signed by al-Sharaa in March called for a People’s Committee to be set up to serve as an interim parliament until a permanent constitution is adopted and general elections held, a process that could take years.
The announcement of impending elections comes at a time when the country is increasingly divided in its views of the new authorities in Damascus after sectarian violence broke out in the southern province of Suwayda earlier this month.
The fighting killed hundreds of people and threatened to unravel Syria’s fragile postwar transition.
The violent clashes, which broke out two weeks ago, were sparked by tit-for-tat kidnappings between armed Bedouin clans and fighters from the Druze religious minority.
Syrian government forces intervened, ostensibly to end the fighting, but effectively sided with the clans.
Some government troops reportedly executed Druze civilians and burned and looted houses.
Israel intervened, launching air strikes on government forces and on the Defence Ministry headquarters. Israel said it was acting to defend the Druze minority.
Meanwhile, Syrian and Israeli officials have held talks in Paris mediated by the United States, according to a Syrian official, in the wake of an eruption of sectarian violence compounded by Israeli military intervention in southern Syria.
The meeting on Saturday was held to address recent security developments around the southern Druze-majority city of Suwayda, which has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks between Bedouins and Druze fighters.
Israel intervened in the conflict, striking government buildings in Damascus and government soldiers in Suwayda province, saying it was doing so to protect the Druze.
The Syrian official told media that Damascus’s delegation at the Paris meeting emphasized that the unity and sovereignty of Syria are nonnegotiable and Suwayda and its people are an integral part of Syria. It also rejected any attempt to exploit segments of Syrian society for partition, the official said.
The source said the Syrian delegation held Israel responsible for the recent escalation and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the points they had recently advanced to during the unrest.
‘Honest and responsible’
Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya TV, quoting its own diplomatic source, reported that the meeting did not result in any final agreements but the parties had agreed to continue talks aimed at maintaining stability. (Int’l News Desk)
