Kurds opt out of Syria poll
Municipal elections the first since 2011 after seven years of civil war
DAMASCUS, SYRIA— Syria held its first municipal elections since 2011 on Sunday, amid tensions with the country’s self-administered Kurdish region, which refused to allow polls.
Candidates campaigned on promises to promote reconstruction after seven years of civil war left cities and towns in ruins. “We hope we can meet the people’s aspirations and improve conditions and services in the city,” said Hassan Taraqji, a Baath Party candidate in Damascus.
The Baath Party, which has controlled Syria’s political and security organizations since the 1960s, was expected to sweep the elections. The war waged by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s gov- ernment against local opposition forces and Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL) has cost the country more than $300 billion (U.S.) in economic damage, according to a recent UN study. Observers say more than 400,000 people have been killed.
But parts of the country remain beyond Damascus’ reach, including the U.S.-backed selfadministered Kurdish region in north Syria, which also includes Arab and minority populations.
The region is governed by its own Syrian Democratic Council, which refused to allow the Damascus-organized elections to proceed on its territory.
“The regime wants us to remain under its rule and under the rule of the Baath,” said Ibrahim Ibrahim, a spokesperson for the administration.
Kurdish officials say they want a federalized Syria that respects the northeast’s autonomy from Damascus and guarantees rights and privileges for national minorities.
High-level meetings between representatives of the SDC and Baath and federal officials in Damascus are yet to produce a breakthrough.
Damascus insists it will assert its authority over the whole country.
Hussein Dabboul, a member of parliament from Aleppo, a north Syrian city near the edges of the self-administration zone, said the SDC was “linked to foreign powers and to the United States, and it has certain objectives and targets.”
Human rights groups have criticized the Kurdish-led administration for single-party rule. The administration held local elections in 2017.
More than 40,000 candidates are competing for 18,478 council seats, according to the Min- istry of Local Administration.
Opposition-held areas were excluded from the polls.
About three million people of Syria’s pre-war population of 22 million live under opposition rule in the country’s northwest Idlib province and surrounding areas.
Another 5.6 million are refugees abroad; they were also excluded from the vote.