The Constituent and Parliamentary Assembly () was the legislative body of Syria during the period following the September 1961 coup and seceding from the United Arab Republic.
Formed after the 1961 Syrian parliamentary election, the assembly combined both constituent and legislative functions. Its primary task was to draft a permanent constitution while also exercising parliamentary authority. Among its most significant acts were the election of Nazim al-Qudsi as President in December 1961, the reversal of socialist economic policies adopted during the UAR, and the adoption of a new constitution on 13 September 1962.
The assembly operated during a period of political instability marked by repeated military interventions, and remained in existence until the Ba'athist coup of 8 March 1963.
Background The 1961 provisional constitution, agreed between army command and the Council of Ministers following the September 1961 coup, consisted of eight articles. Article 1 acknowledged the heritage of the United Arab Republic and changed the country's name from the Syrian Republic to the Syrian Arab Republic, a name retained by every subsequent constitution and system of government. Article 8(b) provided that the President, Council of Ministers, and ministers would exercise executive authority under the provisions of the 5 September 1950 constitution until a new constitution was promulgated.
Article 2 provided for the people to elect a constituent and parliamentary assembly for a four-year term, while Article 7 provided for the assembly to elect a President of the Republic for a five-year term, following the same procedure set out in the 1950 constitution. Article 4 required the assembly to draft a new constitution within a maximum of six months, after which it would convert into a parliamentary chamber, a provision intended to settle in advance the controversy that had followed the simple-majority conversion of the 1949–1950 Constituent Assembly into a legislative chamber. Article 6 set out the legislative procedure to be followed during the drafting period: bills could be proposed by the government or by at least ten deputies; approved bills were promulgated by the President and published in the official gazette; and the President could return a bill to the assembly for reconsideration within ten days, after which, if the assembly insisted, it would be promulgated automatically.
The Assembly was elected by direct suffrage in December 1961, under a new electoral law issued by the caretaker government which amended the 1957 one. Seven seats were reserved for Bedouin representatives considered close to the authorities, bringing total membership to 172. The People's Party won a plurality, as in previous elections, allowing rightists and their independent allies a comfortable majority. The Muslim Brotherhood held several seats, including that of its leader, Issam al-Attar. Khalid al-Azm, an independent deputy for Damascus, received the highest number of votes nationally, followed by Maarouf al-Dawalibi of the People's Party, representing Aleppo.
At its first sitting, the assembly elected Maamun al-Kuzbari as Speaker, a choice that displeased the army, which had favoured Said al-Ghazzi, the outgoing Prime Minister. On 14 December 1961, the assembly elected Nazim al-Qudsi of the People's Party as head of state by near-unanimous vote; he was the only candidate after Khalid al-Azm withdrew, having been supported by the assembly's few leftist members and the independents aligned with them. The new head of state appointed Maarouf al-Dawalibi as Prime Minister, further angering the army.
Government Prime Minister Party Term of office Government Maarouf al-Dawalibi al-Dawalibi II Bashir al-Azma al-Azma Khalid al-Azm K. al-Azm V
Bureau Position Name Party Tenure Speaker Maamun al-Kuzbari Said al-Ghazzi Deputy Speaker Rafiq Bashur Abd al-Samad al-Futtayih Secretary Abd al-Latif al-Yunis Omar Awda al-Khatib Overseer Najdat al-Najjari Shahin Mustafa Shahin Diab al-Mashi
Elections of the Bureau The Constituent and Parliamentary Assembly elected its bureau on the first sitting of the first ordinary session on 12 December 1961.
Members
List of sessions 1st ordinary session: 1st special session: 2nd ordinary session: 2nd special session (held at Khalid al-Azm's residence): National Security Council A National Security Council was established by decree under the thirty-day caretaker government of Izzat al-Nuss, intended to provide a framework for cooperation and consultation between the highest civilian and military authorities. Chaired by the President of the Republic, it included the Prime Minister, the army's commander-in-chief, and senior officers, who together outnumbered the ministers on the council, and was tasked with deciding major domestic and foreign policy directions.
In practice, the President, the Prime Minister, and their ministers showed little interest in the council, viewing it as a body imposed by the military on the legitimate civilian authorities to control executive and legislative decisions; it was never developed into an effective institutional forum, and the constitution drafted by the Constituent Assembly made no reference to it among the institutions of the republic. Of the council's intended biweekly meetings, two proved particularly consequential: one concerning the review of socialist measures adopted during the union with Egypt, and one concerning the Constituent Assembly itself.
Political instability The assembly operated during a turbulent period marked by frequent changes in government, rivalries between political parties, and continued military interference in politics.
In early 1962, the army pressed President al-Qudsi and Prime Minister al-Dawalibi to pass legislation through the Constituent Assembly amending the socialist measures adopted under Gamal Abdel Nasser's rule during the union period, in line with a joint army–government declaration calling for a moderate form of socialism. The bills, drafted at the army's direction by Colonel Abd al-Karim al-Nahlawi and approved by the National Security Council, were passed to the government and then to the Constituent Assembly, whose right-wing majority abolished the socialist measures outright rather than merely amending them, reportedly with the tacit agreement of the government and possibly the President. Feeling deceived, the army demanded that the President withhold his assent to the legislation, dismiss the government, lift the parliamentary immunity of certain deputies, reduce the assembly's remaining term to six months from the constitution's adoption rather than eighteen, and call new elections under a new electoral law. President al-Qudsi refused, denying any intention of interfering with the assembly's work or violating the provisional constitution.
On 28 March 1962, Colonel al-Nahlawi, backed by mostly Damascene officers, carried out his second coup in six months. President al-Qudsi, the Prime Minister, most of the government, and a large number of deputies were arrested, and the Constituent Assembly was dissolved. The President was forced to resign in writing at army headquarters before being transferred to al-Mazza military hospital. The coup divided the army: some officers, mostly leftists, supported it merely as a means of amending rather than abolishing the Nasser-era socialist measures, while pro-unity Nasserist officers saw it as an opportunity to restore union with Egypt; others remained cautiously neutral.
On 31 March 1962, army units in Homs mutinied under Brigadier General Badr al-A'sar, commander of the central region, joined by units and officers — many of them Ba'athists and Nasserists discharged from the army after the collapse of the union in September 1961. The mutiny was directed not against army leadership or the country's de facto ruler, General Abd al-Karim Zahr al-Din, but against Colonel al-Nahlawi and the Damascene officers around him. General Zahr al-Din convened a military conference in Homs on 1 April 1962 to prevent the mutiny spreading; its resolutions included the immediate expulsion of al-Nahlawi and his supporters from Syria, reconstitution of army high command, a review of terms for possible reunification with other Arab states including Egypt, amnesty for those involved in the mutiny, and formation of a non-partisan transitional civilian government excluding military figures. Zahr al-Din accepted all the conference's demands.
A second mutiny broke out on 2 April 1962 in Aleppo, led by Colonel Louai al-Atassi, commander of the eastern region, and Colonel Jassem Alwan, a Nasserist officer discharged from the army after the end of the union. Alwan announced over Aleppo radio the restoration of union with Egypt and requested Egyptian military and logistical support. Army command sent an armoured unit, supported by aircraft, which recovered the city with almost no fighting; Alwan fled and al-Atassi surrendered. Both officers were subsequently sent abroad, and army command granted amnesty to all participants in the Homs and Aleppo mutinies.
1962 Jazira census In August 1962, a month before the adoption of the 1962 constitution, the al-Azma government conducted a population census in Jazira Governorate under controversial circumstances, stripping an estimated 120,000 Kurds, classified as ajanib ("foreigners"), of their Syrian citizenship; those who did not participate in or failed the census were classified as maktoumeen ("unregistered") and left in an even more precarious legal status. By 2011, the stateless population resulting from the census had grown to more than 300,000 people.
Following the 2004 Qamishli riots, which left around 65 people dead and 165 injured, President Bashar al-Assad promised to resolve the issue. No action followed until April 2011, amid the outbreak of the Syrian uprising, when Assad issued Legislative Decree No. 49, granting Syrian Arab nationality to those registered as ajanib in Hasakah; the decree made no provision for the maktoumeen, who remained stateless.
In January 2026, the transitional government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a further decree granting Syrian citizenship, along with Kurdish-language rights, to Kurdish Syrians who remained stateless, marking the first time such rights had been formally recognised.
Restoration and adoption of the 1962 constitution Following the failed coup and the two mutinies, army leadership consulted political leaders not in detention on restoring legitimate government, while stressing it had no intention of joining any government itself. On their advice, the army declined to accept President al-Qudsi's resignation, allowing him to automatically resume office. Al-Qudsi agreed to return on condition that he receive a written mandate, signed by more than half the members of the Constituent Assembly, authorising him to assume both executive and legislative powers alongside a transitional government, and that more than half the assembly's members submit their resignations in writing.