Local committees in Syria cast ballots Sunday to select members of a transitional parliament, a process widely condemned as undemocratic, AFP reported.
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa will directly appoint one-third of the 210-member body, consolidating his authority following the Islamist-led ouster of Bashar Al-Assad in December.
Voting took place at the National Library in Damascus, formerly named after Assad. Final outcomes are expected on Monday, according to AFP. The electoral commission confirmed that “the voting has ended and the counting is underway.”
Approximately 6,000 participants took part in the selection, which drew over 1,500 candidates - only 14 percent of them women. The assembly will serve a renewable 30-month term under a temporary constitution announced in March.
Sharaa is set to appoint 70 lawmakers. The remaining seats are chosen by local committees, themselves appointed by the electoral commission - an entity also selected by Sharaa. Critics say this structure allows Sharaa to shape a loyal parliamentary majority.
Notably, 32 seats remain vacant, as Sweida province and the Kurdish-held northeast - both outside Damascus’s control - were excluded. Sweida, a Druze-majority region, suffered sectarian violence in July.
Candidates in Sunday’s vote included Syrian-American Henry Hamra, the first Jewish candidate in Syria since the 1940s.
Sharaa has stated in the past that it would take between four and five years to organize presidential elections.
The interim president headed the Islamist rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was once a part of Al-Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch.
HTS later broke off from Al-Nusra Front and prioritized combatting Al-Qaeda as well as the Islamic State (ISIS), of which Sharaa was critical, describing its self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq as "illegitimate".
Shortly after Sharaa came to power, the US decided to remove the $10 million bounty on his head. Last month, the US officially revoked the sanctions on the Syrian government which were imposed during the Assad era.