DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria took a significant step toward rebuilding its government Wednesday when interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa released a list of 70 newly appointed lawmakers, forming the foundation of the country’s first Parliament since the end of Assad family rule.
The establishment of this new legislature signals that Syria is pressing forward with the work of governance as it recovers from decades of authoritarian control under the Assad dynasty and a devastating civil war that claimed the lives of roughly half a million people.
Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, who leads Syria’s electoral committee, told reporters that the newly formed 210-member legislative body will convene for the first time on Monday. At that session, lawmakers will be sworn into office and a presidential council for the Parliament will be chosen.
Among the 70 legislators selected by al-Sharaa, 15 are women, bringing the total number of female members in the full legislature to 22.
Syria conducted the first phase of its parliamentary elections back in October, though the southern province of Sweida — an area controlled by Druze armed groups who oppose the central government — was left out of that process. The northeastern region of Syria, then under Kurdish control, was also excluded at that time.
A separate vote was later held in northeastern Syria in May, after government forces seized control of that territory following deadly fighting earlier this year. No election date has been announced yet for Sweida, though al-Sharaa’s Wednesday announcement did include two representatives from that predominantly Druze area.
According to al-Ahmad, the Parliament will operate for a 30-month term, during which members will draft a new elections law and lay the groundwork for future popular elections.
Syria had been without a functioning Parliament since December 2024, when an insurgent offensive led by al-Sharaa’s now-dissolved Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group brought an end to the Assad family’s fifty-year grip on power.
