Syria completes first post-Assad parliament

Shafaq News- Damascus

Syria on Wednesday finalized the formation of its first parliament after the ouster of former president Bashar Al-Assad, with transitional President Ahmed Al-Sharaa appointing 70 members to the 210-seat People’s Assembly.

Under Syria’s transitional framework, 140 members were chosen through electoral bodies, while the president appoints the remaining 70.

Mohammad Taha Al-Ahmad, head of the Higher Committee for the People’s Assembly Elections, told a press conference at the parliament building in Damascus that the assembly’s first session will be held on Monday for members to take the constitutional oath. The new assembly will serve a 30-month term, with the possibility of extension.

The appointed list includes families of “martyrs,” prison survivors, chemical attack survivors, academics, experts, professionals, and community figures, in what Al-Ahmad described as an effort to combine “the voice of sacrifice and the voice of expertise.” It also represents “different segments of Syrian society, away from regional, sectarian, or factional considerations,” including 55 men and 15 women.

The list includes three Kurdish members: Abdulhakim Bashar, a leader in the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Syria, Mustafa Abdi, and Yasser Mansour, all from Al-Hasakah, raising Kurdish representation in the People’s Assembly to 12 members out of 210 –nearly 6% of the chamber. Shafaq News correspondent in Syria clarified that Kurdish seats are distributed across seven members from Al-Hasakah, three from Afrin, one from Tal Aran in rural Aleppo, and one from Kobani.

Kurdish Syrians are an original component of Syrian society, but the presidential appointments were based on competence and experience rather than a quota system, Al-Ahmad told reporters.

Read more: Syria's Kurds enter first parliamentary vote under Damascus-SDF deal

Al-Assad was ousted in December 2024 after opposition forces entered Damascus, ending more than five decades of Al-Assad family rule. Al-Sharaa, who led the victorious rebel coalition, later became president and issued a constitutional declaration setting Syria’s transitional framework. The “People’s Assembly” is the first legislature formed under that transition.