هذا التقرير متاح أيضًا بـ العربية
The composition of Syria’s new People’s Assembly was completed with the announcement of the names of the 70 members appointed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, bringing to a close the final stage of forming parliament after months of indirect elections held in staggered phases imposed by security and military conditions in a number of Syrian regions.
The assembly now consists of 207 members out of 210, with three seats still reserved for Sweida province, where elections have not yet been held. They are to be completed when security conditions allow. July 6 has been set as the date for the assembly’s first session, which will see members take the constitutional oath and elect the presidential office.
The presidential third reflects a diverse composition in terms of geographic distribution, women’s representation, and the variety of professional and academic backgrounds, as well as the presence of former detainees and war-wounded members, in a lineup that the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections said was based on combining national competencies and expertise with those who “gave and sacrificed,” as the assembly enters its real test in the new Syria after the overthrow of Assad’s rule.
70 members
The presidential third includes 70 members, among them 55 men and 15 women. The list also includes five people with disabilities resulting from war injuries and 13 former detainees in the prisons of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
In terms of social backgrounds, the list includes 47 members described as people of competence, compared with 23 notables. Academic qualifications vary between 17 with a high school diploma, four institute graduates, two diploma holders, 18 with bachelor’s degrees, 12 with master’s degrees, and 17 with doctorates.
Specializations are distributed among 15 politicians and activists, 13 academics, seven from the medical sector, six businesspeople, five engineers, five educators, five economists and administrators, four legal professionals, four clerics, in addition to one writer and four members from other fields.
Geographically, Aleppo received the largest share of the presidential third with 14 members, followed by Hasakah with seven, then Homs and Deir Ezzor with six members each, Idlib, Hama, Damascus, and Rural Damascus with five members each, Latakia and Daraa with four, Raqqa with three, while two seats were allocated to each of Tartus, Quneitra, and Sweida.
The presidential third includes figures who previously held temporary positions imposed by the transitional phase, others who took on roles in government institutions and circles of authority, or were linked to coordination tracks with the new Syrian administration during its years in Idlib, alongside former leaders in Syria’s official opposition.
The presidential third includes seven members of the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections itself: Hassan Ibrahim al-Daghim, Imad Yaqoub Barq, Nawar Elias Najma, Mohammad Ali Mohammad Yassin, Hanan Ibrahim al-Balkhi, Badr Jamous, and Anas al-Abdah.
Other figures also stood out on the list, having held public and coordinating responsibilities, including Moayad Hayel al-Qablaoui, who served as general coordinator of the preparatory committee for the “Syrian National Dialogue” conference. It also included Abdul Moneim Mohammad al-Naseef, head of the Syrian Tribes and Clans Council.
The list also included Aisha Mohammad Fahd al-Dibs, who previously served as head of the Women’s Affairs Office in the caretaker government, and Huda al-Atassi, who served on the preparatory committee for the “National Dialogue” conference, in addition to Hassan Mohammad Salim Soufan, who served as governor of Latakia for three months before becoming a member of the Higher Committee for Preserving Civil Peace.
A mix of “people of concern and experience”
The presidential third sparked wide debate in Syrian circles, beginning with the justifications for the delay, which the Syrian president himself attributed to complications related to the selection mechanism and the social composition, pointing to internal polarizations that required leaving room for appointments in order to address certain balances, including weak female representation, and to ensure the formation of an assembly capable of legislating and contributing to rebuilding state institutions.
Set against these justifications were parallel concerns that this appointed share could turn into a tool giving the executive branch lasting influence inside the assembly, or limiting its legislative independence in the coming phase.
During the conference announcing the names, Mohammad Taha al-Ahmad, head of the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections, said the selection of the presidential third was not based on regional, religious, or factional quotas, but rather on standards of competence and experience, alongside representation for those who made sacrifices during the war years, including the wounded, relatives of martyrs, and survivors of detention, with the aim of achieving a mix of people of concern and experience.
Al-Ahmad added that Sweida’s representation in the presidential third does not cancel out the three seats allocated to it, stressing that elections will be held in the province when suitable conditions are available.
For his part, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said the completion of the People’s Assembly’s formation demonstrates Syria’s determination to overcome challenges and move forward in building state institutions to strengthen stability and prosperity.
Commenting on the completion of the first legislative assembly after liberation, Syrian researcher Abdulrahman al-Haj said this is the first assembly to possess “reasonable representational legitimacy,” even if it was not fully elected, arguing that it will form the basis for Syria after the transitional phase and become the most important assembly in Syria’s history since democratic life was destroyed in 1958.
In his post, al-Haj said the assembly, on the whole, does not represent the president’s orientations, and that a large part of it belongs to early leaders of the revolutionary movement and political and military opposition figures, adding that it is “an assembly that cannot be controlled and in which the president does not possess a blocking third.”
He said this assembly would represent a transformation in public life and shift public debate from the street to parliament and back, noting that he does not believe a better outcome could have been achieved regarding the assembly’s formation.
The representation and balance approach
Political analyst Darwish Khalifa told NoonPost that the criteria for selecting the third appointed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa were based on two main pillars: social representation and regional representation. This appears clear, especially since the category expected to bear the greatest burden on the legislative and legal side received only four legal professionals.
By contrast, Khalifa points out that President Ahmed al-Sharaa sought to raise the level of women’s representation in the assembly after the elections — whose general body was formed from the revolutionary street — resulted in the victory of only six women. Fifteen additional women were therefore appointed, bringing the total to 21 female members, equivalent to 10 percent of the assembly’s total 210 members.
Even so, Khalifa believes this percentage still falls short of the level of Syrian women’s capabilities that could contribute to building state institutions and drafting legislation that guarantees women’s rights and achieves equality.
As for the representation of Syria’s components, Khalifa said the assembly in its current form does not adequately reflect Syrian diversity, especially in a transitional phase whose political and constitutional tools have not yet been completed. He noted that if elections had been held on the basis of clear party programs, the picture would have been different, and the discussion would have focused on the programs and visions that brought lawmakers to the assembly rather than on numerical affiliations or social identities.
What are the priorities?
The People’s Assembly is preparing to convene in five days, amid a broad legislative legacy estimated at about 800 laws currently in force and in need of comprehensive review, whether through amendment or repeal. This places the new institution before a massive file from the moment it begins work, extending from a full review of the existing legal system to future legislation.
According to the powers entrusted to the assembly, it is responsible for proposing, approving, amending, or repealing laws, in addition to ratifying international treaties and approving the state’s general budget, as well as issuing general amnesty decisions, considering members’ resignations or lifting their immunity, and holding hearings for ministers reflecting the scale of the legislative and oversight role placed on it from the start of its work.
Attention is also turning to how the assembly will determine the actual priorities of its work, between reviewing the laws most closely tied to citizens’ lives on the one hand, and dealing with hundreds of accumulated pieces of legislation and reorganizing them in line with the new phase on the other, in an early test of the institution’s ability to manage a broad and complex legal legacy.
Taha al-Ahmad, head of the Higher Committee for Elections, expects the presumed legislative priorities to move toward enacting a law regulating the work of employees, a financial law on wages and salaries, and an investment law governing the entry of investments under a new economic orientation based on the “open market.” He also stressed that one of the most prominent tasks in the coming phase is the formation of a committee to draft a new constitution that takes current conditions into account and responds to Syrians’ aspirations.
On the legislative front, political analyst Darwish Khalifa believes the legal priorities are numerous and require comprehensive review and redrafting, foremost among them amending Law No. 107 on local administration, alongside enacting new legislation related to public and individual freedoms, human rights, and property protection, as well as approving a modern law for political parties.
He also stresses the need not to grant any immunity to any security official or holder of public office that would allow evasion of accountability or the use of powers to violate Syrians’ rights.
He adds that economic and investment files, as well as environmental protection, represent essential pillars in the state-rebuilding phase and require clear and effective legislation. He also points to the importance of passing a law to entrench stability and civil peace, one that does justice to those who suffered violations under the former regime, whether through the confiscation of their property or arbitrary detention, in a way that guarantees redress and compensation.
Khalifa concludes by emphasizing the importance of the assembly exercising a real oversight role over the executive branch, not one limited to granting support, noting that the most important achievement at the end of the transitional phase should be the approval of a modern constitution that lays the foundation for a state of law and institutions and opens a new chapter in the country’s history.
The new Syrian administration acknowledges that the electoral process is “not entirely complete” and represents a “moderate” experience suited to Syrian circumstances and the requirements of the transitional phase, while stressing greater transparency and integrity at all stages, from election mechanisms to the appointment of the presidential third, all the way to later filling the vacant seats in Sweida province.
With all the stumbles and challenges of this process, the file now reaches the stage of parliament convening, where Syrians hope the new assembly will mark a step toward restoring real legislative action and closing a long chapter in which the previous parliament was associated with the image of a “rubber-stamp assembly,” to be replaced by an institution capable of representation and accountability.