Idlib (Arabic: إدلب) 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) 1973 Khalid al-Khader(N/A) Nur al-Din Najm(N/A) Muhammad Haj Hamud(N/A) Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Anis(N/A) Abd al-Karim al-Hilal(N/A) Muhammad Salah al-Din Hawwa(N/A) Abd al-Muti Abd al-Qadir(N/A) Muhammad Istanbuli(N/A) Fahmi al-Youssefi(N/A) Adil Hussein(N/A) Abd al-Aziz Diab(N/A) Muhammad Nadhir Dweidri(N/A) Muhammad Riyad Majni(N/A) 13 seats 1977 Ahmad al-Hajj Youssef(N/A) Muhammad Kharboutli(N/A) Muhammad Haj Ayyoub(N/A) Nasr al-Yousef(N/A) Ahmad Eid al-Ahmad(N/A) Muhammad Latouf(N/A) Ismail al-Yousefi(N/A) Muhammad Hisham Saifo(N/A) Ala al-Din Hamama(N/A) 14 seats 1981 Mustafa al-Yousefi(N/A) Muhammad Saleh Hajo(N/A) Omar al-Rai(N/A) Mahmoud Haj Ahmad(N/A) Mustafa Latouf(N/A) Tawfiq al-Ibrahim(N/A) Mahdi Janem(N/A) Munir Qatini(N/A) Muhammad Shakib al-Taha(N/A) Karim Sheikh Karim(N/A) Muhammad Kamal Hammadi(N/A) Mustafa Sayyid Ahmad(N/A) 1986 Ahmad Fawzi Hamidan(N/A) Ikram al-Yousefi(N/A) Mustafa Alloush(N/A) Abd al-Karim Manna(N/A) Muhammad Naffakh(N/A) 1990 Abd al-Razzaq al-Tanari(N/A) Muhammad Fran(N/A) Bashira Hamed(N/A) Nahida Qassas(N/A) Ahmad Salem(N/A) Muhammad al-Sayyid(N/A) Walid Sardini(N/A) Muhammad Abd al-Rahman(N/A) Ahmad al-Gharib(N/A) Ahmad Riyad(N/A) Muhammad Nihad Mishantat(N/A) Muhammad Latouf(N/A) Riyad Naasan Agha(N/A) Muhammad al-Abdallah(N/A) 1994 Jamil Latta(N/A) Abd al-Razzaq al-Hamou(N/A) Muhammad Majid al-Ramadan(N/A) Omar Hassani(N/A) Abd al-Latif Shakir(N/A) Muhammad Osama Halabi(N/A) Khalidiya Kabtawi(N/A) Nasr al-Yousef(N/A) Muhammad Rahhal(N/A) Rifat Daqqa(N/A) N/A N/A 1995 Muhammad Adib Najm(N/A) 1996 Muhammad Fuad Najm(N/A) 1998 Ali Hamdoun(N/A) Nadia Hashem(N/A) Ahmad Taleb(N/A) Muhammad Soufi(N/A) Hikmat Khattab(N/A) Malek Awad(N/A) Saeed Aliko(N/A) Majd al-Din Issa(N/A) Nafidha Nibal al-Muallem(N/A) Abd al-Aziz al-Yousef(N/A) Muhammad al-Omar(N/A) Walid Abdallah(N/A) Adnan Makhzoumi(N/A) rowspan="2" Ahmad Shafi Kayyali(Ba'ath) Muhammad Jawish(N/A) Najdat al-Yousef(N/A)2003 Marwan al-Najm(N/A) Abbas al-Faris(N/A) rowspan="2" Huda Hijazi(Ba'ath) rowspan="5" Sobhi al-Abdallah(Ba'ath) Abd al-Qadir Hanas(N/A) Ahmad Yousfi(N/A) rowspan="5" Ahmad al-Mubarak(Ba'ath) Ihsan Mohsen(N/A) rowspan="2" Abd al-Razzaq al-Yousef(Ind.) Salah al-Din Ali al-Sheikh(N/A) rowspan="7" Safwan Qarbi(Ba'ath) Abd al-Nasser Hamidan(N/A) Muhammad Jamal Ghazzal(N/A) rowspan="2" Muhammad Akram al-Jundi(Ind.) Abd al-Basit al-Hishoum(N/A)2007 Muhammad Sharhouli(Ba'ath) Sameer Baydoun(Ba'ath) Muhammad Zaher al-Yousefi(SUP) Iman Khan Sheikhouni(Ba'ath) Ibrahim Haj Abd al-Aziz(Ba'ath) Muhammad Muti Mouayyad(Until 2012: SUPFrom 2012: ASUP) Muhammad al-Omar(Ind.) Sobhi Hamida(Ba'ath) Muhammad Salim Zakour(Ba'ath) Muhammad Haj Hamida Beitar(SUP) Muhammad Zuhair al-Yousef(Ba'ath) Samer Habal(Ind.)2012 rowspan="3" Zakwan Asi(DSUO) rowspan="4" Ahmad al-Hilal(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Ahmed al-Faraj(Ba'ath) Ghassan al-Qanatri(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Ahmad Qabbani(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Abdo Alo(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" rowspan="5" Fatima Khamis(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Faisal al-Mahmoud(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Nahed al-Moallem(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Sawsan Sayed Wahba(SSNP) rowspan="3" Abdul Razzaq al-Qatini(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Abd al-Wahid Razzouq(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Muhammad Hussein al-Hussein(Ind.) rowspan="3" Muhammad Riad Hasri(Ind.) 2012 rowspan="3" Muhammad Zaher al-Yousefi(Ba'ath) 2015 rowspan="2" Khaled al-Daher(Ba'ath)2016 rowspan="2" Sameer al-Ismail(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Shireen al-Youssef(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Ghiyath al-Qatini(Ba'ath) Muhammad Tarek Daabol(Ba'ath) Zakwan Assi(SUP) Nidal Hamidi(Ind.) Muhammad Talal Houri(SSNP) rowspan="3" Jamal Masto(Ba'ath) Yahya Awad(Ba'ath)2020 Abd al-Karim al-Youssef(Ba'ath) Muhammad Kirdoush(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Ahmad al-Faraj(Ba'ath) Muhammad Qassem Hamadeh(Ba'ath) Adel al-Shayban(Ba'ath) Wael Dali(Ba'ath) Naasan Hijazi(NCP) rowspan="2" Ahmad Aqrin(Ind.) Ahmad Bustaji(SCP-U) Khaled Harbeh(Ba'ath) Maamoun al-Sayyid(Ba'ath) Fouad Aldani(Ind.)2024 Ahmad al-Mubarak(Ba'ath) Asaad Jawhar(Ba'ath) Mayada Jabbour(Ba'ath) Abdul-Fattah al-Najjar(Ba'ath) Fadel Zankalou(Ba'ath) Fawzia Manna(Ba'ath) Khaled al-Daher(Ba'ath) Bayan Sheikh(Ba'ath) Iyad Yousef(Ba'ath) Hassan al-Hassani(Ba'ath) Ahmad Naffakh(Ba'ath) Muhammad al-Keshto(Ba'ath) Abdul-Salam al-Ahmad(Ba'ath) Ibrahim Atef Houri(SSNP) Muhammad Hussein al-Hussein(Ind.)
References