Ammon News - Syria's Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections set October 23 as the date for parliamentary elections in the Raqqa and Hasakeh provinces.

In a post on the X platform, spokesperson for the commission Nawar Najmeh said the voting will open in the cities of Ras al-Ain, Tal Abyad and Damascus to elect three representatives of Raqqa and Hasakeh.

Elections to fill the remaining seats in Hasakeh will be held when the suitable security and political conditions are met, he added.

Syria held its first parliamentary elections since the ouster of the Assad regime on October 5. A total of 1,578 candidates ran for the 119 seats. Twenty-one seats remain vacant because the polls could not be held in Sweida, Raqqa and Hasakeh due to security concerns.

The seats will remain vacant until elections in those provinces are held.

Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad in northeastern Syria fall under the control of the Damascus government even though they lie in the Raqqa and Hasakeh provinces that are held by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Kurdish autonomous authorities in the northeast had in August rejected the elections as “undemocratic”, saying they “do not represent the will of the people” and contradict United Nations Security Council resolution 2254.

They slammed the Syrian government for holding national dialogue, forming a government, announcing the constitutional declaration and the eventual staging of the elections as being “contrary to the goals of the Syrian revolution.” They called for “justice, democracy, equality and freedom for all Syrian communities.”

Najmeh meanwhile accused the Kurdish powers in Hasakeh and Raqqa and the forces in control in Sweida of preventing the authorities from holding elections in those regions.