Rif Dimashq (Arabic: ريف دمشق) was an electoral district used to elect members of the Syrian People's Assembly between 1973 and 2025.
Electoral system
The electoral system used to elect the People's Assembly was introduced in 1973 and remained in use until the assembly's dissolution in 2025. Each governorate formed a single, large electoral district, except for Aleppo Governorate, which was divided into two districts: the city of Aleppo and the rural districts of Aleppo Governorate. Within each district, seats were awarded on a block-vote basis, with the candidates receiving the largest number of votes taking all of the seats allocated to it, and the assembly was composed of representatives of two sectors, "workers and peasants" and "other sectors of the people", with the former guaranteed at least half of its seats nationally. The number of seats, and their distribution among districts, was left to the president of the republic to set by decree rather than being fixed in law; the total was raised from 186 to 195 in 1981 and from 195 to 250 in 1990, after which the distribution among the fifteen electoral districts was not changed.
All Syrian citizens aged 18 and over were entitled to vote, other than those under legal guardianship, those with a mental illness affecting their legal capacity, and those convicted of a felony or a "dishonourable" misdemeanour, while serving members of the armed forces and police were barred from voting and from standing as candidates; candidates were further required to be at least 25 years old and to have held Syrian nationality for at least five years, a period raised to ten under the 2011 and 2014 electoral laws. During the 2011 reform of the electoral law, the replacement of this system was discussed because of its weak representativeness, but the large-district, block-vote system was retained; the reform instead moved the administration of elections from the Ministry of Interior and provincial governors to an independent Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections, a structure carried over into a further law passed in 2014 that consolidated the rules for presidential, parliamentary and local-council elections into a single statute.
Beyond being considered unrepresentative — a majoritarian, large-district system of a kind rejected by most electoral systems worldwide — the system has also been criticised for the unevenness of its distribution of seats between governorates. Based on the number of registered voters at the 2012 election, the average was around 59,000 voters per seat nationally, but the ratio varied considerably: about 37,800 voters per seat in Damascus and 51,500 in Tartus, compared with 71,700 in Al-Hasakah and 69,500 in the rural districts of Aleppo Governorate, with no mechanism beyond a presidential decree governing the size of constituencies or the allocation of seats between them.
Members + Elections MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) 1973 Suleiman Musa(N/A) Diyaa Ali(N/A) Yasin Rabaa(N/A) Hammud Diab(N/A) Abdu al-Shaqi(N/A) Mahmoud Khattab(N/A) Aziz Karbouj(N/A) Muhammad Youssef(N/A) Ahmad Qablan(N/A) Muhammad Wafiq Arnous(N/A) Muhammad al-Masri(N/A) Bushra Kanafani(N/A) Ahmad Dibin(N/A) Abd al-Majid al-Tajjar(N/A) Muhammad Subhi Taha(N/A) 15 seats 1977 Muhammad Eid Ajana(N/A) Mustafa al-Arr(N/A) Muhammad Khair Soufan(N/A) Omar al-Saqqa(N/A) Hassan Houriyeh(N/A) Sobhi Ayoun(N/A) Salah Darwish(N/A) Ali Melhem(N/A) 1981 Hassan Beiraqdar(N/A) Ruiyat Ofouf al-Yassin(N/A) Okasha al-Qadri(N/A) Muhammad Shaddad(N/A) Hilal Rizq(N/A) Muwaffaq al-Azab(N/A) Widad Zarqa(N/A) Yassin al-Shalabi(N/A) Ahmad Diyab(Ba'ath) Said Bakkar(N/A) Karam al-Khoury(N/A) Muhammad Nazim Qaddour(N/A) Mustafa Slakho(N/A) Youssef Jaidani(N/A) 1986 Ahmad Qablan(N/A) Karam al-Khoury(N/A) Amin Hayrab(N/A) Majed Izzo Rahibani(N/A) Mustafa Slakho(N/A) Mustafa Awwad al-Rifai(N/A) 1990 Hamdan Khashini(N/A) Zakiya Masarra(N/A) Mahmoud al-Buqaai(N/A) Zaher Abu Khalif(N/A) Muhammad Akram Zeidan(N/A) Hind Hatitani(N/A) Aziz Karbouj(N/A) Omar Aybour(N/A) Abd al-Hafiz al-Qalsh(N/A) Abdo Qasim(N/A) Mustafa Awwad al-Rifai(N/A) Ali Qabalan(N/A) Abd al-Rahman al-Ahmar(N/A) Muhammad Abd al-Azim(N/A) Amil al-Anini(N/A) 1994 Omar al-Shalt(N/A) Hind Jijaan(N/A) Sabah Awad(N/A) Elias Murad(N/A) Muhammad Diab(N/A) Mahmoud Diab(N/A) Ali Khadra(N/A) Muhammad Khair al-Samal(N/A) Saleh al-Qadri(N/A) Abd al-Karim al-Khouli(N/A) Mustafa al-Tajjar(N/A) Ahmad al-Turk(N/A) Ali Melhem(N/A) 1998 Ayman Zidan(N/A) Sameera Kashka(N/A) Tahir Abu Khalif(N/A) Irfan al-Baradai(N/A) Abd al-Latif Hussein(N/A) Rifat al-Tarshan(N/A) Samia al-Shaer(N/A) rowspan="6" Abd al-Aziz Maqali(Ind.) Ahmad Qablan(N/A) Mamoun al-Qastalani(N/A) Ali Awad(N/A) Suleiman Moussa(N/A) Othman Jumaa(N/A) 2000 rowspan="3" Jadallah Qaddour(ASM)2003 rowspan="4" Salah Taame(Ba'ath) Ibrahim Shamieh(N/A) Sabah Hammoudeh(N/A) Mustafa Jabr(N/A) Izdihar Maatouq(N/A) rowspan="4" Hamza Munther(Ba'ath) Muhammad Anwar Ubayd(N/A) rowspan="4" Adnan Arabsh(Ba'ath) Nizar al-Assassi(N/A) rowspan="2" Ahmad Ahmad al-Dalati(Ind.) Ahmad Khalil(Ba'ath) Maan Barakat(N/A) Atif al-Naddaf(Ba'ath) Muhammad Omar Buqai(N/A) Omar al-Hallaq(N/A) 2005 Imad al-Azab(Ba'ath) rowspan="5" Nazih Abboud(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Mowaffaq al-Habashi(Ind.)2007 rowspan="2" Ghiyath Ghazzal(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Ahmad Sarhan(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Diab Youssef(SUP) rowspan="2" Salah Abla(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Mustafa al-Sayyid Hamoud(SUP) Abdallah Sharha(ASUP) rowspan="2" Muhammad Barmou(Ind.) rowspan="2" Thuraya Muslimaniyya(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Muhammad Osama Burhan(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Ihsan Ataya(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Ilham al-Hallaq(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Munther Izz al-Din(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Hussam al-Din Mustafa(Ind.) 2008 Fayez al-Safadi(ASUP)2012 rowspan="2" George Nakhleh(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Georgina Rizq(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Raja al-Na'al(Ba'ath) rowspan="5" Ali al-Sheikh(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Kamal Aqsimi(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Muhammad Bakhit(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Mosab al-Halabi(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Nabil Darwish(Ba'ath) rowspan="6" Muhammad Khair al-Nader(Ind.) rowspan="2" Mahmoud Diab(Ind.) Mustafa Hammoud(DSUP) rowspan="2" Abdel Aziz Arida(ADUP) rowspan="2" Khalil Khaled(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Ziad Sukkari(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Muhammad al-Saeed(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Muhammad Abdel Nabi(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Mustafa Laila(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Khaled Karbouj(Ind.) 2015 Ahmad Ahmad al-Dalati(Ind.)2016 Elias Murad(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Jamal al-Qadri(Ba'ath) Jamil al-Jabbaji(Ba'ath) Shehadeh Abu Hamed(Ba'ath) Imad Namour(Ba'ath) Majed Halima(Ba'ath) Mowaffaq Jomaa(Ba'ath) Ahmad Zaytoun(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Osama Mustafa(Ba'ath) Hamzi Shahin(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Rimon Hilal(Ba'ath) Muhammad Khair Sarioul(Ba'ath) Muhammad As'ad(Ind.) Muhammad Qaband(Ind.) Muhannad Zaid(Ind.)2020 rowspan="3" Hikmat al-Azab(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Haifaa Jumaa(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Ali Rashaq(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Abd al-Rahman al-Khatib(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Muhammad Kabtooleh(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Nabil Darwish(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Amer Ubayd(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Mustafa Layla(Ba'ath) Ahmad Jamil Ibrahim(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Muhammad Bakhit(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Faisal Jammoul(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Amer Khayti(Ind.) rowspan="3" Ziad Khallouf(Ind.) rowspan="2" Subhi Abbas(Ind.) 2022 Muhammad Qaddour al-Ainiya(Ba'ath)2024 Reema al-Rifai(Ba'ath) Yousef al-Hassan(Ba'ath) Fadi Abu Qash(Ba'ath) Shehadeh Abu Hamed(Ba'ath) Faisal al-Raqqad(Ba'ath) Ali Saadat(Ba'ath) Hassan al-Jabhaji(Ba'ath) Mujahid Ismail(Ba'ath) Ahmad Hijazi(Ba'ath) Fahd Is'haq(ASUP) Abdul-Latif Daboura(Ind.)
References