QAMISHLI: Syria’s Kurds on Sunday criticized the upcoming selection of members of a new transitional parliament as undemocratic, after authorities postponed the process for Kurdish-controlled areas in the north and northeast.
After toppling longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, Syria’s new authorities dissolved the parliament and adopted a temporary constitution for a five-year transition.
The selection of a transitional parliament is planned for September. Appointed local bodies will pick two-thirds of the 210 lawmakers and President Ahmed Al-Sharaa will name the rest.
But an election committee official said Saturday that the process would be postponed in Druze-majority Sweida province and Kurdish-held Raqqa and Hasakah provinces, citing “security challenges” and saying it could only go ahead in “territories controlled by the state.”
The Kurdish administration in the north and northeast said in a statement that “defining our regions as unsafe” was carried out “to justify the policy of denial for more than five million Syrians” in the area.
