Syria is holding parliamentary elections for the first time since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, a landmark moment in the country’s fragile transition after nearly 14 years of war.Members of Syria’s electoral colleges gathered on Sunday to vote for the new lawmakers in a process being criticised as undemocratic, with a third of the 210 members of the revamped People’s Assembly appointed by interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe remaining representatives will not be voted on directly by the people, but chosen instead by electoral colleges around the country.Critics say the system favours well-connected figures and is likely to keep power concentrated in the hands of Syria’s new rulers, rather than paving the way for genuine democratic change. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa will directly appoint one-third of the deputies [File: Stephanie Lecocq/AFP]In a joint statement last month, more than a dozen nongovernmental organisations said the process means al-Sharaa “can effectively shape a parliamentary majority composed of individuals he selected or ensured loyalty from”, which risked “undermining the principle of pluralism essential to any genuine democratic process”.“You can call the process what you like, but not elections,” Bassam Alahmad, executive director of France-based Syrians for Truth and Justice, one of the organisations to have signed the statement, told the AFP news agency.Meanwhile, elections in the restive Druze-majority province of Suwayda and in northeastern areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been indefinitely postponed due to tensions betwe …
