Syrians Vote in First Local Elections Since 2011

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma cast their votes in the country's presidential elections at a polling station in Damascus June 3, 2014. | Photo: Reuters

Syrians voted Sunday in government-held areas across the conflict-torn country in the first local elections since 2011 as polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m. local time and are expected to stay open for 12 hours.

More than 40,000 candidates are competing for 18,478 seats on local administrative councils. Majority of the candidates are members of the ruling Baath party or affiliated to it.

Votings are not taking place outside the government-controlled areas including the Kurdish held parts of the northeast and Idlib, one of the last territories controlled by the anti-government forces.

The Syrian law prohibits absentee voting and voting by proxy which would prevent refugees from casting their ballot. The law also makes it such that internally displaced persons could not vote because people are required to vote in the province they were born in, and is mentioned in their national IDs, rather than the one they reside in.

For example, a person from Aleppo living in Damascus cannot vote for the municipality in Damascus. They have to physically cast their vote in Aleppo. These electoral regulations, which existed before the conflict, are barring a vast majority from voting, hence the voter turnout is low.

The seats have been increased in these polls from 17,000 in the last one as smaller villages have been promoted to full-fledged municipalities. The elected representatives will have more responsibilities than their predecessors as they will have to work on rebuilding the country.

The last local elections in Syria took place in December 2011. The country held parliamentary elections in 2016 and a presidential vote in 2014 which witnessed landslide victory for Assad with 88.7 percent votes.

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