Syria’s High Electoral Commission announced this Sunday that legislative elections, the first since the fall of the al-Assad dynasty late last year, will be held between September 15 and 20 of this year.
The commission’s chairman, Mohamed Taha, assured in a press conference that the elections for Syria’s People’s Assembly will meet the democratic standards requested by the country’s Western allies, with the presence of election observers and the possibility of challenging the results, according to the official news agency SANA.
Taha also announced a change in the structure of the new parliament, which will increase from 150 to 210 seats (20 percent of which will be reserved for women), thus increasing the participation of governorates according to the 2011 population census. However, the country’s president, Ahmed al-Shara, will have decisive influence by nominating 70 deputies.
