Kurdish parties demand 40 parliamentary seats in People's Assembly elections

Twenty-four Kurdish political parties, including the Democratic Union Party (PYD), accused the Syrian government of following "exclusionary policies" in distributing seats allocated to the Kurdish component during the People's Assembly elections in Hasakah,  considering that the allocation of only four seats out of 210 constitutes a "political execution" of Kurdish rights.

  A joint statement issued by 24 Kurdish parties and groupings on Tuesday, May 19, 2026,  considered that the approved mechanism "ignores the principles of citizenship and partnership", describing the electoral process as "closer to appointment than to real representation", and the  parties also criticized the inclusion of names from outside Al-Hasakah province in the electoral body, and the appointment of a representative of Ras al-Ain who they described as "immersive Arabs", considering this as an extension of the policies of demographic change.

The  statement called for raising the representation to 40 seats "commensurate with the demographic weight of the Kurds," as it put it,   considering that the confirmation of the four seats "will have a serious impact on the future of Kurdish participation in state institutions and sovereign portfolios."

The statement stressed that the current seats "do not reflect the free Kurdish will" and that "no Kurdish party has a popular mandate to accept them," stressing the continuation of what it described as the "peaceful struggle" in cooperation with the Syrian Democratic Forces for "a national partnership and a constitution that recognizes national rights."

Supreme Committee: No quota in the elections

On Sunday (May 17th), the state-run SANA news agency quoted  the spokesman of the Supreme Committee for the Elections of the People's Assembly, Nawar Nejmeh, as saying that the electoral process is "far from the principle of quotas", considering that fair representation of all components of the Syrian people "will be guaranteed in terms of competencies".

The political quota system "has its advantages, but it carries negatives related to national integration and the strengthening of a sense of belonging", Najmeh said, noting that the electoral bodies "represent a fair mirror of the Syrian social fabric and the existing competencies".

The role of the Supreme Committee in influencing the level of representation within the People's Assembly "ends at the stage of forming the electoral bodies", he said, adding that "fair and transparent ballot boxes are what determine the final results of the electoral process".

Radical Transformations in the Electoral System

Since the overthrow of the regime on December 8, 2024, Syria has witnessed a broad transformation in the structure of the electoral system, following the transition of the People's Assembly elections from direct suffrage that lasted for decades to the indirect system of "electoral bodies", within the framework of the restructuring of constitutional institutions and the launch of a new legislative cycle that extends between 2025 and 2026.

The new electoral system is based on the selection of council members through electorates of about 6,000 people, representing different social and professional strata, rather than direct popular suffrage. The candidates were selected through a special presidential commission, a move that was seen as part of a reset of the political process during the transitional period.

Sweida is out of the electoral track

The People's Assembly elections in Sweida province are still officially postponed so far in light of political and security complications that prevent the start of the electoral process, while the governorate is waiting to create the necessary conditions for the start of voting and the completion of its representation in the new council.

On April 6, the spokesman of the High Elections Committee, Nawar Nejmeh, confirmed that the committee is keen to ensure the representation of the people of Sweida, but there is still no specific date for holding the elections, explaining that the seats of Sweida have been kept among the 11 vacant seats in the council, provided that they will be filled immediately after the completion of the electoral process.