After a decade of over four decades of dictatorship and cruel civil war, Syria is making its first election later this month. But the process of electing a new Syrian Parliament is far from simple and has a lot of controversies.
A complex process
Every Syrian polling is not going to the booth, nor will there be political parties or campaign posters. Instead, the vote wants to be cast by various committees, which is the first election in the country after dictorship, which the stees have called “indirect”.
In a statement posted at the end of June, the interim Syrian government, the interim Syrian government said, “Reality in Syria does not allow holdings of traditional elections, the presence of millions of people internal and exclusively displaced, the absence of official documents, the existence of the legal structure, the fragility of the legal structure,” Why the interim Syrian government explained why the election was indirectly in a statement at the end of June.
Because of this, the resulting process of selecting a new people assembly will be in several stalls.
In June this year, the 11-member Supreme Committee for the People’s Assembly elections was directly appointed by the Syrian government to monitor the election.
In turn, the Supreme Committee has appointed which is known as election sub-committees in 62 election districts of Syria. The districts are weighed by the population, so some of them have more than one seat.
In the next phase, the different district sub-committee appoints to represent each seat in their district directly and between 50 people. Thesis people want “Election College” – that is, there is a group of elections, which is a group of elections.
When appointing the thesis individuals, sub -committees should take into account various characteristics, including the degree of university and businesses, “social effects” -Tat, people who are active and are known in their own communities and diversity, as well as ensuring that the group includes displaced, disabled and reasons in the group.
Among other qualities such as age and citizenship, electoral college members should not have been part of the designer regime (unless they blame during the civil war), serving in security forces, or not a criminal record. Twenty percent of electoral college members should be women.
Once selected, the entire electoral college is for a number between 6,000 and 7,000 people, around Syria, around Syria.
Concern about President’s power
Sana, for Syrian official news agency, the final list of candidates was published on 18 September, any member of the public now has three days to appeal against any of the candidates who do not think they should be there.
Election college members have been veto, some of them will have campaigns for seats in People’s assembly. There are no political parties and election campaign is not public; It is to take a week and only occurs between members of the electoral college.
Finally, on Election Day, the entire Electoral College will vote for 121 members of the new Syrian Parliament from within its own rank.
The election process is already Postponed Officials explained that many candidates were willing to join the Electoral College – but, they say, the voting process should be completed by the end of September.
Originally there were actually 140 seats for the election, but voting has been postponed in many parts of Syria – in the field of Swarida, with Syrian’s drain minority dominance, and in parts of Raqqa and Haske, which are controlled by Syrian minority. This means that about 19 seats will not be voted for this month.
The Syrian transition government says elections in those areas are postponed due to security concerns. In recent times, there were inter-communal and communal violence, in which thousands died. But in fact, elections are postponed there because the Syrian government does not actually control those regions, drew and kurdish.
After the election process is over, another 70 seats will be added to the new Parliament. But Thesis Parliamenianian is to be selected directly by the country’s interim President, Ahmed al-Shara, a former militia leader who played his militia, Hayat Tahraj to Sham, left the dictator Bashar Assad last December.
Dispute and conflict
This process is positive, Haid Haid, a Syrian analyst and senior non -resident partner at Paris -based Arab Reform initiative, It was written earlier this month“On paper, the electoral process introduces minor but meaningful reforms,” he said, “many consultant steps, mechanisms for appeal, and steps to enhance women’s participation.” International observers have invited bees invited to monitor the process.
Additionally, the highest committee is more diverse than other initiatives and is not dominated by members of Hayat Thrir al-Sham, called Head.
But this process is seen by “by structural ambiguities and unresolved questions, which leave the process to manipulate the process,” and consequently there may be a shortage of community trusts, arguing.
Media report from inside Syria Indicate that many Syrians admit that there is no way to hold direct elections right now. A recent survey, The Undeacts by the Qatar-based Arabs for research and policy studies between the middle and mid-August found that around 4,000 Syrian interviews felt 57% of the Syrian interview that the political situation was positive.
But other Syrians are very important, saying that there is a highly managed process. A superficial “Charad,” A way to legalize the transitional government without real consensus or search for democracy.
Some of the most vocal critics of these elections have been told about Syrian minorities. In the last weeks, Delegate Pass Published letterOr the statement criticizing this process, it is called illegitimate.
Earlier this week, 14 separate Syrian civilian society groups were published. A paper paper Recommending the change in the process, arguing that various aspects of the election have a lot of control over both the President al-Shara electoral process and the resulting assembly of the people.
For example, under the temporary constitution of Syria, the President’s decisions can only be overturned by a two-thirds majority in the People’s Assembly. This is the reason that 70 elected officers selected directly by Al-Shara want to import-if they only represent their interests, it will be very difficult to act in Parliament two-thirds of acting against him.
There is a lot about the role that plays the new People’s assembly, when it is finally chosen. It will be tasked with overhalling a fleet of most old laws, opening the country and drafting a new constitution, as well as new laws will be passed to prepare for direct elections within the next three to five years.