Assad’s firm control over Syrian society all but ensured a victory for the Ba’ath Party in this year’s People’s Assembly elections. The election results saw a consolidation of Ba’ath power and smaller victories for individuals seeking to deepen their ties with the regime. This year, the regime assigned 183 of the total 250 People’s Assembly seats to the Ba’ath Party and regime-sanctioned leftist parties, leaving just 67 seats to purportedly independent candidates. While the Ba’ath has historically been the regime’s primary tool for penetrating and controlling Syria’s grass-roots, the regime has sought to exert unprecedented control over the party to ensure its every objectives are met. During the most recent party conference, Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, was appointed to the Ba’ath’s Central Committee.
Stage-managed and ridden with violations from the get-go, the parliamentary elections change little to nothing in Syria. This election’s significance is in ensuring the formation of a regime-sanctioned body that will pass the constitutional amendment needed to secure Bashar al-Assad’s next term as president—his current term ends in 2028. But otherwise, parliamentary elections—like the 2022 municipal elections and 2021 presidential elections before them—are meant to project the veneer of process and legitimacy to the international community and an image of institutional capability to Syria’s backers.
In Suwayda, where protesters have been demonstrating against the regime for almost a year, activists and armed groups attempted to actively prevent the election from taking place rather than simply boycotting it. Activists stormed more than a dozen polling stations and seized ballot boxes, with anti-elections demonstrations recorded in several towns and cities.
Damascus
In an unexpected outcome in Damascus, one list (“Sham”) led by regime-linked businessman Muhammad Hamsho won a shock victory with a large margin of the votes, unseating well-known Damascene political figures as a result. Hamsho now has a significant stake in Syria’s parliament and, more broadly, the regime’s inner circle. A key ally of Maher al-Assad and influential regime-backed business figures, Hamsho is also subject to western sanctions for his role in facilitating illicit financial transactions on behalf of the regime.
South Syria
After a weeks-long campaign to encourage a mass boycott of the election, activists and armed groups in Suwayda actively sought to prevent voting from taking place. On the eve of elections, activists, supported by local gunmen, in north-west Suwayda’s Al-Mazraa stormed the Civil Registry Department and seized 17 ballot boxes allocated for the town and outlying villages. The same incident was repeated in at least a dozen other towns in the province. Activists also demonstrated outside electoral centers, often attempting to prevent people from entering to vote.
Around 200 people participated in a protest against the elections in central Suwayda city. After a scuffle between protesters and election staffers by the municipality building, security forces fired live ammunition towards protesters, injuring a bystander who was later taken to the National Hospital for treatment. Fighters linked to the regime’s National Defense Forces (NDF) militia forcibly dispersed an anti-elections protest in Lahitha and beat several demonstrators. Initial reports suggest an extremely low voter turnout across Suwayda, with several centers recording as few as 10 voters throughout 12-hour voting period.
In Daraa, most of the 14 Ba’ath candidates are not from the province, and several others have well-known links to Iran. In Busra al-Sham, Shia representative Fayza Hussein al-Ghazbeh has direct connections to Iranian figures in Syria. Ahmad Muhammad Zuheir al-Jamous (Dael) and Ahmad Nayef al-Sweidan (Daraa al-Balad), meanwhile, are known for their connections to the regime’s 4th Division. The 4th Division, headed by Maher al-Assad, is responsible for well-documented war crimes against the Syrian people since 2011, including the 2013 chemical attacks in Eastern Ghouta.
Regime-Held North-East Syria
Although large swathes of territory in north-east Syria are held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), there are parts of the region still under regime control that are able to participate in elections. Before the elections, the SDF closed crossings between SDF and regime-held areas. Where election participation was recorded, however, so was corruption: polling centers in Deir Ezzor’s Al-Bukamal and Al-Mayadeen witnessed open vote-buying, with the average price of one vote reaching to 20 to 30,000 Syrian pounds (approximately 1.50-2.30 USD).
Most candidates in these regime-held areas of Hasakeh came from pro-regime local militias: NDF commander Hassan Hamza Saloumi and Muhammad Faisal al-Muslit, who leads a militia backed by regime General Intelligence, both stood for election in the Hasakeh city. In Raqqa, many of the candidates were longstanding Ba’athist figures or the sons of former Ba’athist bureaucrats. They include Raed Ibrahim Huneidi, whose father was a member of the party’s regional leadership from 1980 until his death in 2023, and Nidal Mahmoud al-Alou, whose father served as a member of Raqqa’s party branch between 2005 and 2023.
Following delays due to alleged voting violations, regime officials announced the election results on 18 July. (Photos: Mazen Muhammad, Facebook)
