Parliamentary elections were initially held in Syria on 5 October 2025, with subsequent by-elections being held on 23 October 2025, 17 March 2026, and on 24 May 2026 to elect 140 of the 210 members of the People's Assembly, the unicameral legislature of Syria. The election was the first to be held since the fall of the Ba'athist-led regime in December 2024, and the first to be conducted under the Syrian transitional government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The election was held over multiple nonconsecutive days, with 119 MPs elected on 5 October 2025, and 18 MPs being elected in subsequent elections. , the 3 seats in Suwayda Governorate are currently vacant due to conflicts between government forces and the Druze-led Administrative Council of Jabal Bashan, in which the council controls most of Suwayda Governorate, and the government controls parts of the northern half of the governorate.
Unlike previous elections in Syria, the 2025 elections and subsequent 2026 elections were held under a provisional, indirect electoral system. Of the 210 seats, 140 seats were allocated to be filled through a constituency-based electoral college system. Members were selected by local committees appointed by the government. The remaining 70 seats within the People's Assembly were appointed directly by the president, with no seats being elected by direct popular vote.
Background The People's Assembly is Syria's unicameral legislature. Under the Ba'athist-led regime, the Assembly was characterised as "primarily a debating club", rubber-stamping the president's directives. Elections to the People's Assembly were previously held by direct popular vote in multi-member constituencies. In practice, however, roughly two-thirds of the seats were consistently won by the Ba'ath Party and its allies, with the remaining seats held by independents.
Following the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives and the formation of the Syrian caretaker government, the People's Assembly elected in the July 2024 Syrian parliamentary election was formally dissolved on 29 January 2025 and replaced by an interim Legislative Council. Following the adoption of the Constitutional Declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic, the People's Assembly was re-established, under which one-third of MPs were to be appointed by the president. Presidential Decree 66, which established the 11-member Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections (), was issued on 13 June. The committee, chaired by Mohammed Taha al-Ahmed, was responsible for overseeing the formation of electoral subcommittees, which elected the remaining two-thirds of the members of parliament (MPs).
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa stated that there was a lack of infrastructure to allow for direct elections, and Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni said that "the absence of political work, parties, and political activism", in addition to the need to register displaced people and deceased people, as well as the Assad regime granting citizenship to large numbers of Iranian militants, meant that the indirect system was 'logical' until the infrastructure for direct elections could be established, which could take up to four years to organise.
Date of the election In June 2025, The Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections estimated that the process of organising elections would take between 60 and 90 days to complete. The original plan involved the election taking place on the same day across all of Syria, originally estimated to be at the end of August. The election date was then updated in late July 2025 to be expected to fall between 15 and 20 September.
On 14 September, Tareq al-Kurdi, a member of the electoral committee's legal committee, announced that the elections had been postponed from September due to the high number of applications. Nawar Najmeh, the electoral committee's spokesperson said that the elections were expected to take place before the end of September. On 21 September, the final date was announced to be 5 October, and take place between 9:00 until 12:00; however, if not all members of the electoral college had cast their votes before that time, it would be extended until 16:00.
In addition to the election of most seats on 5 October 2025, elections to remaining seats were held on 23 October 2025, 17 March 2026, and on 24 May 2026.
Electoral system In July, election committee chair Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad stated that a presidential decree was going to be issued in order to beginning the planning of a new electoral system, which would cover: "membership conditions... campaign mechanisms, a code of conduct for voters and candidates, and provisions ensuring women's participation of at least 20%". Presidential Decree 143 of 2025 was issued on 20 August which approved the electoral system for the elections.
Number of MPs Under initial plans for a new parliament, it would have consisted of 150 MPs, with 100 MPs being elected and 50 MPs being appointed by the president of Syria, but on 27 July 2025 the committee announced that the assembly would be expanded to seat 210 MPs, with 140 MPs (two thirds) being elected and the remaining 70 MPs (a third) being appointed. The Higher Committee chair emphasised that the seats appointed by the president were to be reserved for "highly skilled technocrats to fill gaps that may arise from the electoral process and ensure diverse representation".
Electoral college system The temporary electoral framework replaces direct elections, used under the former regime, with an indirect system. Instead of direct votes, subcommittees will choose delegates that form one electoral college per constituency, which in turn elects MPs. The number of members on each governorate's sub-committee matches the number of MPs the governorate will elect. The sub-committees collect applications from individuals wishing to serve as delegates, who vote to elect an MP. Most constituencies have 150 delegates, but larger constituencies will have more, such as Damascus with 450. In total, 6,817 people were chosen as electors for the electoral college.
According to the committee, this approach was intended to suit the transitional and legislative nature of the new parliament due to the lack of infrastructure, such as reliable census data and voter registration to conduct direct elections. According to the committee, the system was intended to favour technocrats and academics, targeting 70% of MPs being academics or experts, and 30% being notable community figures (preferably with academic qualifications as well). Delegates were then selected to join the electoral college by the governorate's sub-committee according to 17 criteria. There were quotas mandating that each electoral college have at least 20% of delegates being women, and at least 3% with a disability.
Each governorate's electoral subcommittee was to nominate around 150 people per constituency, forming a local electoral college, from which a single or few parliamentary representatives will be elected. 14 subcommittees were to be formed, one per governorate.
The preliminary list of the members of the electoral college members was released on 24 September, allowing a one-day period for submitting objections. The final list was published on 26 September, and candidacy applications for MPs were open between 27 and 28 September.
Equality To discuss views and proposals, the Higher Committee met with several groups, including the Syrian Women's Advisory Council, representatives of unions and syndicates, Patriarch Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church, civil society leaders, the Journalists Union, and a delegation from Daraa. Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni also suggested that the president could appoint MPs to counter any lost balance for marginalised groups from the election committees.
Constituencies The seats are elected by constituencies, with varying numbers of MPs allocated to each constituency. Committee member Mohammed Wali stated that "Each [governorate] has several [constituencies], each [constituency] produces several members of parliament". There are 60 constituencies, with 49 electing an MP on election day, and 2 further electing an MP on 23 October. Constituencies with more than 600,000 residents will elect three members for every additional 250,000 residents.
The final distribution of seats by governorate were released on 26 August 2025:
Term The committee has also estimated that MPs will serve an expected term of five years. However, elections are supposed to be renewed after 30 months, since the term of the People's Assembly is set at 30 months in accordance with the constitutional declaration. This means that although the committee's mandate was initially conceived as a longer-term assignment, it remains subject to the legislative cycle established by the constitutional framework.
Candidacy The requirements for candidacy are that the candidate must:
Have been a Syrian citizen since before 2011. Have been registered in the civil registry within its electoral district, or be a resident for five consecutive years before 2011. Have legal capacity. Be at least twenty-five years old. Have good conduct. Have not have been convicted of a felony or a crime against honour, except for cases of a political or security nature. Should not have run for president after 2011. Have never been a member of the People's Assembly or a candidate in the post-2011 period unless defection is proven. Have not been a supporter of the former regime and terrorist organisations in any way, and not to be an advocate of secession, division or bullying abroad. Have not been affiliated with the armed forces or security services. Have not been a member of the Higher Committee, subcommittees or appeals committees. Have not been a minister, governor, deputy or assistant. Have been committed to the provisions of the Constitutional Declaration. Hold an accredited university degree or its equivalent for the category of competencies. Have a high school diploma for the category of notables. Be a member of that electoral college.
Monitoring The committee chair stated that, to maximise transparency, the election will be monitored by international organisations with the committee's coordination, having full freedom to contest lists and results. EU diplomats expressed a desire to visit the sub-committees and electoral districts, especially on election day, which was welcomed by the Higher Committee.
The Higher Committee additionally created an appeals committee for each governorate, and for the Syrian Bar Association to appoint a lawyer for each of the constituencies as a legal observer.
Subcommittee members took the legal oath on 3 September, and electoral bodies began selection on 7 September.
Regional postponements The Higher Committee for the Elections of the People's Assembly had expressed a desire to hold elections throughout Syria, including areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), and specifically mentioned the governorates of Raqqa and Al-Hasakah. In the event elections in the regions were not feasible, the committee stated it would look at working with locals to ensure participation through indirect methods.
On 23 August, the Syrian transitional government announced that elections would not be held in the Druze-controlled governorate of Suwayda and the areas of Al-Hasakah and Raqqa. The Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections said the ballot was delayed in all three areas until a "safe environment" was in place, according to SANA state news agency.