Scattered Clouds
clouds

18 April 2024

Amman

Thursday

71.6 F

22°

Home / World

Polls open in Syrian regime-held areas for first local elections since 2011

16-09-2018 05:38 AM


Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Voting began across government-controlled parts of Syria on Sunday for the war-ravaged country’s first local elections since 2011, state news agency SANA said.

Polling booths opened at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and are expected to stay open for 12 hours.

“Voting centers opened for citizens to cast their ballots to elect their representatives in the local administrative councils,” SANA reported.

“More than 40,000 candidates are competing for 18,478 seats across all provinces,” it said.

Syrian state television broadcast footage of voters around Damascus and in the coastal government bastions of Tartus and Latakia dropping their ballots into plastic boxes as election officials looked on.

Syrian troops now control around two-thirds of the country after scoring a series of military victories in recent months, including around Damascus and in the country’s south.

Voting was expected in some of the recaptured areas.

The number of seats had slightly increased from the roughly 17,000 open in the last elections, as smaller villages had been promoted to fully fledged municipalities.

The councils operate at the municipal level, and newly elected representatives are expected to have more responsibilities than their predecessors, especially those linked to reconstruction and urban development.

Syria last held local elections in December 2011, just nine months into the conflict.

It held parliamentary elections in 2016 and a presidential vote in 2014 that renewed President Bashar al-Assad’s rule for another seven years.


*Agencies




No comments

Notice
All comments are reviewed and posted only if approved.
Ammon News reserves the right to delete any comment at any time, and for any reason, and will not publish any comment containing offense or deviating from the subject at hand, or to include the names of any personalities or to stir up sectarian, sectarian or racial strife, hoping to adhere to a high level of the comments as they express The extent of the progress and culture of Ammon News' visitors, noting that the comments are expressed only by the owners.
name : *
email
show email
comment : *
Verification code : Refresh
write code :