Initial Syrian election results show low success rate for women, minorities

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria publishes preliminary results of its indirect vote for the first parliament since Bashar al-Assad’s historic toppling last year, with election officials acknowledging a low success rate for women and religious minorities.

Sunday’s vote saw around 6,000 members of regional electoral colleges choose candidates from pre-approved lists, part of a process to produce nearly two-thirds of the new 210-seat body. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will later select the remaining third.

In the days preceding the vote, analysts and some Syrians had voiced concerns that it was too centrally managed and that suspending elections in areas outside government control meant not all communities were being fairly represented.

In preliminary results, Syria’s electoral committee says that 119 lawmakers had been selected, but did not include the number of votes each received.

Six new lawmakers are women, according to a Reuters count verified by election observers. The observers say 10 seats in total went to religious and ethnic minorities, including Kurds, Christians, and two Alawites, the sect to which Assad belongs.

One of the election observers described the new parliament as overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim and male.