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Syria's Druze, Kurds criticize exclusion from upcoming vote

August 28, 2025

Syria's first election since the fall of the Assad regime will exclude three minority-dominated areas. Will it be able to restore trust in the new administration without the votes of most Druze and Kurdish people?

A Syrian woman takes a selfie, holding the new Syrian flag
Syria's first parliamentary election will exclude three minority-dominated regions, but has the chance to boost trust in the government in DamascusImage: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Syria's upcoming parliamentary election will exclude three minority-dominated regions due to security concerns and absence of central control, Hassan al-Daghim, the spokesperson for the higher electoral commission based in Damascus, recently told Syria's national news agency SANA.

Al-Daghim explained that elections in the Druze-majority province of Sweida, as well as in the Kurdish-dominated regions of Hassakeh and Raqqa, will be postponed until "circumstances allow." For the time being, he said, the election — scheduled to take place between September 15-20 — "can only be conducted in areas fully under government control."

However, the allocated seats for these three provinces — home to more than 5 million people — will remain vacant until elections can be held there, he added.

Jerome Drevon, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that "for now, the representatives of these regions prefer to be outside the state and as they do not recognize the government, they are not taking the seats designated for them."

Speaking to DW from Damascus, he said that in his view it is credible that interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa will not redistribute their seats but make their participation in the vote dependent on their decision to recognize the Damascus government. "It depends as much on the representatives of the Druze and the Kurds as on the government," he said.

Kurdish, Druze minorities reject vote

The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, AANES, which has been locked in tensions with Damascus over the integration of Kurdish forces into Damascus' national army and the authority over Syria's Kurdish region, have deemed the exclusion as "undemocratic."

In a statement, AANES said "defining our regions as unsafe" was carried out "to justify the policy of denial for more than 5 million Syrians." The Kurdish administration warned that "any decision taken through this approach of exclusion will not concern us, and we will not consider it binding for the peoples and regions of northern and eastern Syria."

Contentious Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Salman al-Hijri (center) has called for a separate Druze governorate within SyriaImage: Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images

In the southern Sweida region, the most contentious of the three Druze leaders, Sheikh Hikmat Salman al-Hijri, responded to Damascus' decision with renewed calls for a separate Druze governorate. Al-Hijri, who views the government in Damascus as "extremist," said he is now aiming to unite local armed factions following the harrowing week of sectarian violence in mid-July.

While the current ceasefire in Sweida is mostly holding, humanitarian access is reportedly still being throttled by government-led forces, an allegation that Damascus has denied. Tens of thousands of people remain displaced.

Geir Pedersen, the top UN envoy for Syria, told the UN Security Council last week that violence could resume at any moment in Sweida. "A month of relative military calm belies a worsening political climate, with escalatory and zero-sum rhetoric hardening among many," he said in a video briefing on August 21.

"The threat of renewed conflict is ever-present as are the political centrifugal forces that threaten Syria's sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity," Pedersen said, adding that there is an urgent need for security forces under the transitional government led by al-Sharaa to demonstrate that they are acting to protect all Syrians.

Since the ouster of longtime dictator Bashar Assad in December and the self-appointment of al-Sharaa, the former leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Islamist rebel group, as interim leader, the president has consistently rejected any form of decentralized government or partitioning of the country. Al-Sharaa has also repeatedly vowed to respect minority rights and to form an inclusive government that reflects Syria's diverse ethnic and religious makeup.

Ceasefire in Syria: Inside the sectarian conflict in Sweida

04:48

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Half of Syria's population remains displaced

However, back in March, al-Sharaa ratified a constitutional declaration granting himself the power to appoint one-third of the 210-member assembly. The remaining two-thirds will be selected by electoral bodies overseen by an 11-member Supreme Committee — which was also appointed by al-Sharaa.

The Supreme Committee is responsible for forming subcommittees in each of Syria's 14 governorates. These subcommittees will select electoral bodies of 30–50 individuals who will vote for registered candidates. As a result, Syria's first parliamentary election since the Islamist offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled the Assad regime will be entirely indirect.

According to the latest UN figures, 14 years of war have left around half of Syria's population displacedImage: Ghaith Alsayed/AP Photo/picture alliance

Middle East expert Birgit Schaebler, a professor at the University of Erfurt in Germany and director of the Orient Institute in Beirut until 2022, told DW earlier in August that direct elections would be unrealistic at this point given the severely damaged infrastructure and logistics caused by 14 years of civil war.

According to a recent report by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, between 7 and 7.4 million people remain internally displaced, and around 6.2 million Syrian refugees still live abroad — roughly half of Syria's total population.

'Legitimacy' of election 'quite questionable'

"The legitimacy of the parliamentary elections is quite questionable anyway, and the withdrawal of key groups further undermines the legitimacy of the entire process," Bente Scheller, who heads the Middle East and North Africa division at the German political Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin, told DW.

"The announcement to exclude three minority-dominated regions from participating in the parliamentary elections, as well as their response of refraining altogether, weakens al-Sharaa and has cast even more of a shadow over his presidency."

Despite the exclusion of the three regions, Scheller believes it's a positive sign that the election is set to take place at all.

"While the majority of the Syrian population remains critical [of the upcoming vote], this election could be decisive in either undermining or restoring confidence in Syria's current administration," she said.

Can Syria's interim leader win trust of divided minorities?

04:45

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DW's Kersten Knipp contributed to this article.

Jennifer Holleis Editor and political analyst specializing in the Middle East and North Africa.
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