The first local elections in the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria were held on 22 September 2017. Representatives of 3,700 communes in the regions of the Northern Syria Federation were selected in the election, involving 12,421 candidates. The communal elections on 22 September were followed by elections of local councils in December and a federal

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

of the People's Democratic Council, the region's highest governing body, in 2018. Some areas controlled by the

Syrian Democratic Forces The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a Kurds in Syria, Kurdish-led coalition of U.S.-backed Left-wing politics, left-wing ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Democratic Autonomous Administration ...

were not included in the election, including the city of

Manbij Manbij (; ; ) is a city in the northeast of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, west of the Euphrates. The 2004 census gives its population as nearly 100,000.

Preparations

Between 27 and 28 July 2017, a conference of the Syrian Democratic Council was held in the town of Rmelan. During the conference, the three-canton system in

Rojava Rojava may refer to: * Syrian Kurdistan, also known as Rojava, the geographical region where Kurds historically settled within present-day Syria * Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria The Democratic Autonomous Administ ...

was changed to three federal regions, the

Jazira Jazira, al-Jazira, Jazeera, al-Jazeera, etc. are all transcriptions of Arabic language, Arabic meaning "the island" or "the peninsula". The term may refer to: Business *Jazeera Airways, an airlines company based in Kuwait Locations * Al-Jazir ...

, the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

, and

Afrin Region Afrin Region (; ; ) was the westernmost of the three original regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. The region previously had two subordinate cantons, the Afrin Canton, consisting of the Afrin city area (with the ...

s. Dates of elections were also decided at the meeting, with 22 September being the date for communal elections, 3 November for

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

elections, and 19 January 2018 for the People's Assembly of Federal Regions and the People's Democratic Council, the highest governing body for the Federation of Northern Syria. Officials who organized the elections included Hediya Yousef and Îlham Ehmed, two senior officials in the government of the ''de facto'' federal region. The election was mostly organized by the High Electoral Commission (; ; ) of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria which launched a promotional campaign in order to encourage voting in the election which included online promotional advertisement on Facebook and Twitter and the release of a promotional song in Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac. al-Ghamar Arabs (), who were settled by the Syrian regime in the Hasakah Governorate in the 1960s and '70s on appropriated (mostly Kurdish-owned) land, were allowed to participate in the communal elections and subsequent regional elections to establish local services for them, but weren't allowed to participate in the third round in January 2018 to elect the Syrian Democratic Council. The cities of

Manbij Manbij (; ; ) is a city in the northeast of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, west of the Euphrates. The 2004 census gives its population as nearly 100,000.

and

Raqqa Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...

were excluded, as they had local councils independent from the Northern Syria Federation, and Raqqa was only fully captured by the

after the first local elections. Both men and women ran in the elections, with the SDC planning to have women hold 50% of positions.

Elections

The elections officially began at 8 a.m. on 22 September, with hundreds of thousands of people participating. Security during the elections was maintained by the Asayish police, the Anti-Terror Forces (HAT) and the Society Protection Forces (HPC). In cities and towns with Assyrian populations, such as

Qamishli Qamishli is a city in northeastern Syria on the Syria–Turkey border, adjoining the city of Nusaybin in Turkey. The Jaghjagh River flows through the city. With a 2004 census population of 184,231, it is the List of cities in Syria, ninth most-po ...

, the Sutoro police also provided security. The elections in the Jazeera and

regions ended on 8 p.m. that day, while elections in the

were extended by two hours.

Results

728,450 votes representing 70% of eligible voters were reported to have been cast in total, with 437,142 from the

Jazira Region The Jazira Region, formerly Jazira Canton (; ; ), is the largest of the three original regions of the de facto Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). As part of the ongoing Rojava conflict, its democratic autonomy was off ...

, 135,611 from the Euphrates Region and 155,697 from the

Recognition, support, and opposition

On 6 August 2017, Faisal Mekdad, the deputy foreign minister of Syria, dismissed the elections as a "joke". The Raqqa Civil Council and leaders of 5 tribes in and around Raqqa announced their support for the elections. On 20 September, the

Kurdish National Council The Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNCS, , ENKS; ) or Kurdish National Council (KNC) is a Kurds in Syria, Syrian Kurdish political party. While the KNC had initially more international support than the ruling Democratic Union Party (Syria), ...

in Syria announced a

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...

of the election and called it a "flagrant violation of the will of the

Kurdish people Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

References

{{Syrian Civil War Local elections in Syria 2017 in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria Politics of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria

Preparations

Elections

Results

Recognition, support, and opposition

See also

References