Syria Conducts Initial Polls After the former president, Yet Not all Regions Are Involved.

The Syrian nation is gearing up to organize its pioneering parliamentary elections on Sunday after the removal of Bashar al-Assad, amidst apprehensions over representation and multiple deferrals.

Voters will not have no direct vote for the People's Assembly, which will be tasked with lawmaking throughout a provisional era.

On the other hand, referred to as "selection committees" will appoint representatives for the majority of the 210 seats. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa will appoint the remaining.

Former leader Assad was removed by the current administration's troops 10 months ago following a lengthy civil war.

The government state they have deferred the elections for safety concerns in two Kurdish-controlled provinces and a further province which saw fatal conflicts between state troops and Druze militias.

These conflicts, in July, marked the latest incident of religious conflict in the country after the change in leadership.

In a statement at the international forum last week - the first by a head of state in 60 years - the interim leader vowed to prosecute all those accountable for the violence, as well as those who perpetrated crimes during Assad.

He also assured that Syria was now "rebuilding itself through establishing a modern system, developing bodies and rules that guarantee the rights of each person without exception."

The upcoming elections are being managed by the Supreme Committee for the national parliamentary polls, whose appointees were selected by the interim leader in last month.

The allocation of positions assigned in each of voting regions is calculated from census data compiled in 2010 - the period prior to the country entered a domestic war that caused the deaths of more than 600,000 people and uprooted an additional 12 million.

The deferral of the votes in the affected regions - Raqqa, Hassakeh and Suweida - implies the electoral colleges in just a portion of the areas will be selecting representatives for a set number of spots on the upcoming Sunday.

There will be more than 1,500 candidates, who must also be electoral college members. Advocates of "the former regime or extremist groups" were prohibited from participation, as were advocates of "separatism, fragmentation or external interference."

At least one-fifth of the committee delegates were required to be women. But there were no set requirements for women legislators, or for those from the nation's diverse minority communities.

The head of state will select delegates for 70 seats from beyond the electoral colleges.

In the past weeks, a coalition of organizations expressed concern that this meant he would have direct influence over the legislature's structure.

"This arrangement renders the assembly prone to authority dynamics not reflecting the voters' will and undermines its intended representative nature, allowing the government to control an institution that should be independent and reflective of the popular will," a joint statement warned.

They also claimed the president's overt and covert sway over the Leading Group and the voting bodies turned the polls "primarily for show, devoid of their electoral intent of guaranteeing inclusion and oversight."

Sharaa has defended the method the votes are being held. "During this interim phase, there is a obstacle to hold general polls due to the lack of documents, and a significant portion of the citizens is outside of the country, additionally without records," he stated in a television interview, alluding to the millions displaced persons who have remained abroad.

The Higher Committee said it was impractical to hold votes in Raqqa, Hassakeh and Suweida because of the "ongoing circumstances." The allocated spots allocated to them will be unoccupied till polls can proceed.

These regions are largely controlled by a local force alliance, the SDF, which is in a stand-off with the provisional administration over the execution of a spring accord to incorporate all security and public organizations into the government.

An official of the PYD stated the voting procedure and deferral indicated the administration had the same mentality "like the former regime's attitude."

"We note exclusion and rejection of the rights of the citizens, such as votes. Hence, the current administration fails to reflect the choice of the nation," she told media outlets.

The administration also has limited influence in the region, where strains with the mostly Druze community have persisted since the communal conflict there in the past.

The violence erupted when community fighters clashed with Sunni Bedouin tribes, which caused the authorities to deploy troops to step in. More than 1,000 people were fatally wounded in the clashes, largely Druze, as reported by observers.

Hussam Nasreddin, of the Druze-majority Damascus area of the locale, dismissed the {electoral process|voting system|e