Iraq News Now

Shafaq news/ Syria held its parliamentary elections on July 19, Sunday. In which Ba?ath Party and its allies won the majority of seats in Parliament according to the official results announced by the judicial committee for election today, Tuesday.

The party and its allies in the "National Unity" list won 177 out of 250 seats, half of which are reserved for workers and peasants.

This is the third election to be held after the conflict in 2011, in the absence of any actual opposition.

The head of the Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections, Judge Samer Zumreeq, announced during a press conference this evening, Tuesday, that the participation rate reached 33.17% compared to 57.56% in 2016.

The committee announced the results the day after the re-polling in 5 centers in northern and eastern Syria.

Among the winners of the elections is the current deputy, businessman, Hossam Al-Qatraji, who has been subject to European sanctions, and was reported to have been involved in commercial oil sales during the ISIS control of large fields in eastern Syria.

Last Sunday, 1,658 candidates contested the race to reach parliament in more than 7,000 polling stations in government-controlled areas, including areas previously controlled by opposition factions, in which elections were held for the first time during years of conflict.

Syrians living outside the country, including millions of refugees displaced by the war, were unable to participate in the polls, as well as for those residing in areas still under the control of the anti-Damascus factions.

Usually, the elected parliament, in its first session, elects a president, and the government then turns into a caretaker government, until Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad appoints a new prime minister to form a new government.

These elections come about a year before the upcoming presidential elections in the summer of 2021.

The date of the elections has been postponed twice since April, because of COVID-19, in which 540 cases and 31 deaths were registered.