Parliamentary elections were held in Syria in 2025 and 2026, with further planned to be held in 2026, to elect 140 of the 210 members of the People's Assembly of Syria, the unicameral legislature of Syria. The election was the first held since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 and was conducted under the authority of the Syrian transitional government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The election was held in multiple waves, with 119 MPs elected on 5 October 2025, 3 MPs elected on 23 October, and 18 MPs not yet elected.
Unlike previous elections in Syria, the 2025 election was held under a provisional, indirect electoral system. Of the 210 seats, 140 seats were allocated to be filled through a constituency-based electoral college system; with 121 seats were due to be elected, and 119 seats being elected on election day. MPs were selected by local committees composed of experts and community figures. The remaining 70 members of the People's Assembly (MPs) will be appointed directly by the president, with no seats being elected by direct popular vote.
The People's Assembly of Syria is the country's unicameral legislature. Under the Ba'athist regime, the Assembly was characterised as "primarily a debating club", rubber-stamping the president's directives. Elections to the People's Assembly were by direct popular vote in multi-member constituencies, however constitutionally two-thirds of the seats automatically went to the Ba'ath Party and its allies, with the remaining seats being independents.
Following the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, political changes in Syria, and the transition to a new governance model, the People's Assembly elected in the July 2024 Syrian parliamentary election was dissolved on 29 January 2025 and replaced by an interim Legislative Council. Following the adoption of the Constitutional Declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic, a provisional parliament called the People's Assembly was established with the president appointing one-third of MPs. On 2 June 2025, Presidential Decree 66 was issued, which established the Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections (). The 11-member committee was responsible for overseeing the formation of electoral sub-committees, which would elect two-thirds of the MPs.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that there was a lack of infrastructure to allow for direct election, and Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni said that "the absence of political work, parties, and political activism", in addition to the need to register displaced people and deceased people, as well as the Assad regime granting citizenship to large numbers of Iranian militants, meaning that the indirect system was 'logical' until the infrastructure for direct elections could be established, which could take up to four years to organise.
The committee estimated in June 2025 that the process of electing MPs would take 60 to 90 days to complete, ending in August 2025. The election would take place on the same day across all of Syria, originally estimated to be at the end of August, and the election date chosen was expected to fall between 15 and 20 September. On 14 September, Tareq al-Kurdi, a member of the Higher Committee's legal committee, announced that the elections had been postponed due to the high number of applications, and that the elections were expected to take place before the end of September. On 21 September, the final date was announced to be 5 October, and take place between 9:00 until 12:00; however, if not all members of the electoral college had cast their votes before that time, it would be extended until 16:00.
A presidential decree was planned to be issued to set up the processes for the elections, which was done on 20 August 2025. The committee chair stated that the decree was planned to include "membership conditions", campaign mechanisms, "a code of conduct for voters and candidates, and provisions ensuring women's participation of at least 20%."
In addition to the election of most seats on 5 October 2025, supplementary elections were held on 23 October 2025 and 17 March 2026.
The 2025 elections are being held under a temporary electoral system, enacted by Presidential Decree 142 on 20 August 2025, with practical procedures commencing on 21 August 2025.
According to the Higher Committee, the People's Assembly will comprise 210 MPs, with 140 MPs (two-thirds) being elected and the remaining 70 MPs (a third) being appointed by the president of Syria. The Higher Committee chair emphasised that the seats appointed by the president were to be reserved for "highly skilled technocrats to fill gaps that may arise from the electoral process and ensure diverse representation". Originally, 150 MPs were planned to be seated, with 100 MPs being elected and 50 MPs being appointed, however this was announced to have changed on 27 July 2025.
The temporary electoral framework replaces direct elections, used under the former regime, with an indirect system. Instead of direct votes, subcommittees will choose delegates that form one electoral college per constituency, which in turn will choose MPs. The number of members on each governorate's sub-committee matches the number of MPs the governorate will elect. These sub-committees collect applications from individuals wishing to serve as delegates, who vote to elect an MP. Most constituencies have 150 delegates, but larger constituencies will have more, such as Damascus with 450. Around 6,000 people were chosen as electors for the electoral college.
According to the committee, this approach is intended to suit the transitional and legislativeâÂÂnot representativeâÂÂnature of the new parliament due to the lack of infrastructure, such as reliable census data and voter registration to conduct direct elections. The aim is to select technocrats and academics: 70% of the MPs will be academics or experts, 30% will be notable community figures (preferably with academic qualifications as well). Delegates are selected to join the electoral college by the governorate sub-committee according to 17 strict criteria. At least 20% of delegates must be women, and at least 3% must have a disability.
Each governorate's electoral subcommittee will nominate around 150 people per constituency, forming a local electoral college, from which a single or few parliamentary representative will be elected. 14 subcommittees will be formed, one per governorate.
The preliminary list of the members of the electoral college members was released on 24 September, allowing a one-day period for objections to be submitted. The final list was published on 26 September, and candidacy applications for MPs is open between 27 and 28 September.
To discuss views and proposals, the Higher Committee met with several groups including:
Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni also suggested that the president could appoint MPs to counter any lost balance for marginalised groups from the election committees.
The seats are elected by constituencies, with varying numbers of MPs allocated to each constituency. Committee member Mohammed Wali stated that "Each [governorate] has several [constituencies], each [constituency] produces several members of parliament". There are 60 constituencies, with 49 electing an MP on election day, and 2 further electing an MP on 23 October.
The final distribution of seats by governorate were released on 26 August 2025:
Constituencies with more than 600,000 residents will elect three members for every additional 250,000 residents.
The committee has also estimated that MPs will serve an expected term of five years. However, elections are supposed to be renewed after 30 months, since the term of the People's Assembly is set at 30 months in accordance with the constitutional declaration. This means that although the committee's mandate was initially conceived as a longer-term assignment, it remains subject to the legislative cycle established by the constitutional framework.
The requirements for candidacy are that the candidate must:
Additionally, the candidate must be chosen from amongst the members of that electoral college.
The committee chair stated that, to maximise transparency, the election will be monitored by international organisations with the committee's coordination, having full freedom to contest lists and results. EU diplomats expressed a desire to visit the sub-committees and electoral districts, especially on election day, which was welcomed by the Higher Committee.
The Higher Committee additionally created an appeals sub-committee for each governorate, and for the Syrian Bar Association to appoint a lawyer for each of the constituencies as a legal observer.
Subcommittee members took the legal oath on 3 September, with the process of selecting electoral bodies starting on 7 September.
The committee expressed a desire to hold elections throughout Syria, including areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, specifically, the Raqqa and Al-Hasakah governorates. In the event elections in the regions are not feasible, the committee said it may work with local dignitaries and notables to ensure participation through indirect methods.
On 23 August, the Syrian transitional government announced that elections would not be held in the Druze-controlled governorate of Suwayda and areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), namely Al-Hasakah and Raqqa. The Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections said the ballot would be delayed in all three until a "safe environment" was in place according to SANA state news agency.
In response, the DAANES affirmed that the planned elections are not democratic and "do not in any way reflect the will of the Syrian people". It criticised the characterisation of areas under DAANES control as "unsafe" and argued that it would "justify the policy of denial" against more than five million Syrians. It called on organisations like the United Nations not to recognise these elections.
However, the committee later decided to hold elections in some areas of Raqqa and Hasakah governorates. The members of their sub-committees took the legal oath on 22 September. Elections were planned to be held in the Ma'adan, Tell Abyad (Gire Spri) and Ras al-Ayn (Sari Kani) districts, which are under the control of the Syrian transitional government and the Syrian National Army factions. But the election of these areas and two members from the Ayn al-Arab District in Aleppo Governorate was also delayed. The preliminary list of electoral college members in Tal Abyad and Ras Al-Ayn were issued on 12 October for appeals.
On 17 February 2026, the Higher Committee issued its decision on the composition of the Raqqa and Tabqa subcommittees, with the receipt of applications for membership of the electoral colleges beginning on 23 February for Raqqa District and Tabqa District constituencies, with committee spokesperson Nawar Najma stating that, once the election preperation in Raqqa had been completed, preparations would move to the remaining constituencies that did not have elections so that Parliament could eventually convene. The elections for Raqqa and Tabqa constituencies was expected to take place in the week of 16 March 2026, and polls opened on 17 March 2026, with 126 votes cast out of 150 voters in Raqqa, and 42 votes cast out of 50 voters in the Tabqa.
Nominations closed on 28 September, beginning the campaign period. 1,578 candidates were nominated, with 221 being women (14%). Voting on election day occurred from 9:00 on 5 October, and was planned to continue until polls close from approximately 12:00 or until 16:00 if some electoral college members had not voted by that time. Afterwards, votes would then be counted. The campaign period finished on 3 October, with 4 October being an "electoral silence" day.
One of the ongoing discussions in the Syrian election is the future structure of the People's Assembly once the election is completed. Committee spokesperson Nawar Najma said that discussions were taking place on whether to return to "one of the AssemblyâÂÂs former names, such as the House of Representatives or Parliament", due to the "negative connotations by many Syrians of the name".
One day of election silence was observed before the scheduled election day.
The preliminary results were released as Higher Committee Decision 66 on 6 October at 14:18 AST on the Higher Committee's telegram page, with an official press conference at 17:00 to announce the official results.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria secured "a few seats" through its "allied candidates", who are currently unknown.
Out of the 140 seats allocated for the electoral college, 119 were elected after elections were postponed due to "security concerns" in Raqqa, Al-Hasakah, and Suwayda Governorates. Out of those elected, six were women and 10 were representatives of religious and ethnic minorities, including Kurds, Christians, and two Alawites. After the election, the Syrian government has acknowledged "shortcomings" in female and minority representation, and promised that the president-appointed seats may be used to compensate for the underrepresentation.
On 23 October 2025, supplementary elections were held to elect three members for the Ras al-Ayn District in Al-Hasakah Governorate and Tal Abyad district in Raqqa Governorate.
On 17 March 2026, by-elections were held in Raqqa, Tabqa and Tal Abyad.
Two thirds of the 210 seats were elected indirectly, with another third being directly appointed by president Ahmed al-Sharaa. Furthermore, minority regions such as Kurdish areas and the Druze province of Suwayda were excluded from the election. Some opposition members feared a mere facade without real change. That was due to the limited power of parliament: the president was accountable to it and the People's Assembly could only repeal the president's decrees with a two-thirds majority, which can be prevented by the appointed members.
Higher Committee spokesperson Nawar Najmeh said that "the unsatisfactory results for Syrian women's representation, and the fact that Christian representation was limited to two seats, a weak representation relative to the number of Christians in Syria" was "among the most significant shortcomings" of the election.
Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, director of the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research, has described the process as a pragmatic step given Syria's current conditions. He acknowledged the lack of infrastructure and civil documentation, and emphasised the importance of including civil society and local leadership in transitional governance structures. Al-Bunni noted that this Assembly's decisions could be subject to future review, amendment, or repeal once popular elections are feasible.
Birgit Schäbler, historian and professor at the University of Erfurt and director of the Orient-Institut Beirut until 2022, said in early August 2025 that she did not expect the Druze to boycott the election, nor other minority groups, "provided the government respects their regional and local interests".
However, journalist Jasim Al-Azzawi wrote for Al Jazeera English that the elections required "genuine security and reconciliation", to avoid deepening existing sectarian divides.
As of 31 October, MPs had not been told when the first session of the People's Assembly would sit, how often it would sit, or the salary of members. Whilst al-Sharaa had been expected to announce his appointed MPs on 8 December 2025, he did not issue his list. The general amnesty issued by al-Sharaa on 18 February 2026 re-opened debates as to why Parliament had still not convened, leaving Syria without a parliament for over a year. Officials said that the delay in convening the Parliament was due to the need to complete the postponed elections, which began in February 2026. Al-Sharaa said that the first session of the People's Assembly had been delayed as the state preferred to wait until all the elections were completed.
While participating in a meeting at the Royal Institute of International Affairs on 31 March 2026, Al-Sharaa announced that the People's Assembly would be seated within the next month.