LONDON: Recent appointments to Syria’s parliament by interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa appear designed to project a broader, more inclusive political tent, bringing in prominent figures such as Kurdish politician Abdul Hakim Bashar and Druze leader Laith Al-Balous.
On Wednesday, Al-Sharaa named the final 70 members of the new parliament, including 15 women, completing the 210-seat People’s Assembly. According to the chamber’s own geographic breakdown, the appointments span all 14 Syrian governorates, with the largest shares going to Aleppo, Hasakah, Homs and Deir Ezzor.
The distribution published by the assembly showed 14 representatives from Aleppo; seven from Hasakah; six each from Homs and Deir Ezzor; five each from Idlib, Hama, Damascus and Rif Dimashq; four each from Latakia and Daraa; three from Raqqah; and two each from Suwaida, Tartous and Quneitra.
Presenting the appointments in Damascus, Mohammad Taha Al-Ahmad, chairman of the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections, described the announcement yesterday as “a new national milestone in the journey of building the Syrian state.”
He said the final 70 members were chosen to balance “the voice of sacrifice and the voice of expertise” — a reference to both veterans of the anti-Assad opposition and technocratic figures expected to help shape legislation.
Syria’s first post-Assad parliament took shape after interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa released a list of 70 appointed lawmakers. (AFP photo)
That balance, analysts say, reflects an attempt to widen the chamber’s appeal without loosening executive control.
Nanar Hawach, Senior Syria Analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Al-Sharaa’s appointments “suggest that Damascus wants a chamber that can pass laws efficiently and speak to many audiences, while avoiding internal political surprises.”
“The list broadens the chamber’s profile, bringing in more technocrats and more women, which can improve the quality and presentation of legislation,” Hawach told Arab News.
However, “the overall outcome suggests that loyalty, coordination and institutional continuity were highly valued,” he said.
“A cooperative parliament can help a transition move quickly from decrees to laws and reduce uncertainty in government work,” he added. “The downside is that difficult questions risk being filtered out before they reach the floor.”
Ghassan Ibrahim, a London-based Syrian analyst and head of the Global Arab Network, argues that, given Syria’s current circumstances, some degree of presidential intervention was unavoidable. He said Al-Sharaa’s decision to appoint a smaller bloc himself “appears to have been aimed at creating some balance.”
“The broader selection process seems to have revealed gaps: there were not enough women, not enough highly qualified people, and not enough minority representation,” Ibrahim told Arab News. “His appointments were meant in part to address those shortcomings.”
Syria’s October 2025 parliamentary elections marked the first institutional test of the country’s transitional period after the fall of Bashar Assad. (AFP photo)
Nearly a year after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, the October 2025 parliamentary elections marked the first institutional test of Syria’s transition, but the process quickly drew some criticism.
Critics at the time noted that one third of the 210-seat assembly was reserved for presidential appointment, that voting did not take place nationwide, and that several areas outside Damascus’ control — including Suwaida and parts of the Kurdish-held northeast at the time — were left unrepresented or postponed.
Representation was also a demographic issue. Early results showed low female and Christian representation among those chosen through the indirect process, with women accounting for only six of 122 elected members, Al-Majalla reported on Oct. 6.
Al-Sharaa’s latest appointments raised the number of women in the chamber to 21.
Ibrahim said those shortcomings had to be viewed in the context of a country still in transition.
“There is no realistic way to form a parliament without the authorities playing a role,” he said. “This is a transitional government, a transitional authority, and the parliament itself is part of that transition.”
“A normal free election is not really possible right now,” he added. “Many Syrians still lack proper documentation, many are refugees, and under those conditions it would be very difficult to hold a genuinely practical nationwide vote.”
Even so, he argued that a genuinely free election held now would still likely produce a parliament broadly supportive of Al-Sharaa, “because many Syrians are exhausted by Assad and that would naturally produce a pro-Al-Sharaa outcome.”
He also argued that fully open elections might not necessarily produce a more inclusive chamber.
“If there were free elections now, minorities might well end up with even less representation than they have received already,” he said. “That is not necessarily because Syrians do not want minorities to participate, but because that can simply be the outcome of majoritarian elections.”
For Ibrahim, the central question is less how the chamber was formed than what it does next. He asked: “The real test is how they perform once they begin working: are they doing the job, and are they genuinely representing their communities?”
Hawach of the ICG argued that the longer-term issue is not simply whether the chamber looks diverse, but whether it can exercise real authority.
“Over time, public confidence will depend less on how broad the membership looks and more on whether parliament can meaningfully initiate legislation, amend draft laws, and exercise oversight over the executive,” he said.
Fourteen years of war have left Syria battered by widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that continues to shape daily life. (AFP file photo)
Benjamin Feve, a senior consultant at Karam Shaar Advisory, noted that the 70 appointees include women, minorities, conservatives, liberals, technocrats, prominent figures from the IT sector and other nonparty profiles.
“From what I have gathered, there does not seem to be an overwhelming presence of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham hardliners or explicitly pro-HTS figures,” he told Arab News, referring to the group that led the offensive that toppled Assad and was once headed by Al-Sharaa.
“That is important because it gives the parliament a degree of domestic and international acceptability,” Feve said.
At the same time, he said the chamber may not emerge as a particularly strong or independent political actor.
“My expectation is that, in the short term, it will function more as a consultative and ratifying body than as a legislature capable of seriously challenging the executive,” he said.
“That is not necessarily a bad thing in itself,” Feve added. “Syria urgently needs to amend, replace, and pass a large body of laws, and the authorities will likely use parliament to give that process formal legislative legitimacy.”
“In the initial phase, it could be quite useful, because the transition requires laws, and I do not expect major parliamentary blockages or deep ideological confrontation at first,” he said.
“Over the medium to long term, however, there may be grounds for concern, because many of the appointees are not professional politicians, which could limit the quality of parliamentary debate.”
The names chosen by Al-Sharaa reinforce the message of a chamber meant to appear broader in composition. Among them is prominent Druze Sheikh Laith Al-Balous, who was part of a coalition of Druze leaders that exercised autonomy from Assad in Suwaida.
Also appointed was Gabriel Moshi Kourieh, a Syrian Christian and member of the Assyrian Democratic Organization who was detained by the Assad government from 2013 to 2016.
Hassan Soufan, the former head of the Islamist rebel group Ahrar Al-Sham who also spent time in the notorious Saydnaya prison, was also named to the chamber.
Abdul Hakim Bashar of the Kurdish National Council was among two Kurdish appointees from Hasakah.
The final list also included actress Rozina Lazkani and Aisha Al-Dibs, head of the government’s women’s affairs office.
