The first local elections in the

Democratic Federation of Northern Syria The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing Regions of North and East Syria, sub-regions in the areas of Afrin Region ...

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 a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

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

Syrian Democratic Forces , war = the Syrian Civil War , image = Flag of Syrian Democratic Forces.svgborder , caption = Flag , active = 10 October 2015 – present , ideology = DemocracyDecentralizationSecularism ...

were not included in the election, including the city of

Manbij Manbij ( ar, مَنْبِج, Manbiǧ, ku, مەنبج, Minbic, tr, Münbiç, Menbic, or Menbiç) is a city in the northeast of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of the Euphrates. In the 2004 census by the Ce ...

Preparations

Between 27 and 28 July 2017, a conference of the

Syrian Democratic Council The Syrian Democratic Council ( ku, Meclîsa Sûriya Demokratîk, MSD; ar, مجلس سوريا الديمقراطية; syc, ܡܘܬܒܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܐ ܕܝܡܩܪܛܝܬܐ, translit=Mawtbo d'Suriya Demoqraṭoyto) is the political wing of the Syri ...

was held in the town of

Rmelan Rmelan ( ar, رميلان, ku, Rimêlan) is a town in the al-Hasakah Governorate in the northeast of Syria. Administratively part of the al-Yaarubiyah nahiyah of al-Malikiyah District, the town is located 900 km northeast of the capital Da ...

. During the conference, the three-canton system in

Rojava The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, Ma ...

was changed to three federal regions, the

Jazira Jazira or Al-Jazira ( 'island'), or variants, may refer to: Business *Jazeera Airways, an airlines company based in Kuwait Locations * Al-Jazira, a traditional region known today as Upper Mesopotamia or the smaller region of Cizre * Al-Jazira (c ...

, the Euphrates, and

Afrin Region Afrin Region ( ku, Herêma Efrînê, ar, إقليم عفرين, syc, ܦܢܝܬܐ ܕܥܦܪܝܢ, translit=Ponyotho d'Afrin) is the westernmost of the three original regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. The region pr ...

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 ...

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 Îlham Ehmed (Arabic: إلهام أحمد), also rendered as Îlham Ahmed, is a Syrian politician from the Democratic Union Party currently serving as the co-president of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syri ...

, two senior officials in the government of the ''de facto'' federal region. The election was mostly organized by the High Electoral Commission ( ar, المفوضية العليا للانتخابات; ku, Komseriya Bilind Ya Hilbijartinan; syc, ܦܩܝܕܳܝܘܬ݂ܐ ܥܠܝܬܐ ܕܓܘܒܳܝ̈ܐ) 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 (lit. "Arabs of the Flood"), who were settled by the Syrian regime in the

Hasakah Governorate Al-Hasakah Governorate ( ar, محافظة الحسكة, Muḥāfaẓat al-Ḥasakah, ku, Parêzgeha Hesekê}, syc, ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܚܣܟܗ, Huparkiyo d'Ḥasake, also known as syc, ܓܙܪܬܐ, Gozarto) is one of the fourteen governorates (pro ...

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

. The cities of

and

Raqqa Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Rom ...

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 The Internal Security Forces; ar, قوى الامن الداخلي, Quwā al-ʾAmn ad-Dāḵilī., also known as the Asayish; ar, الْأَسَايِش, al-ʾAsāyiš; syr, ܐܣܐܝܝܫ, Kurdish for Security. in the Jazira, Euphrates, an ...

(HAT) and the

Society Protection Forces A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...

(HPC). In cities and towns with

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

populations, such as

Qamishli Qamishli ( ar, ٱلْقَامِشْلِي, Al-Qāmišlī, ku, قامشلۆ, Qamişlo, syc, ܒܝܬ ܙܠܝ̈ܢ, Bēṯ Zālīn, lit=House of Reeds or syr, ܩܡܫܠܐ, translit=Qamishlo)

, the

Sutoro The Syriac Security Office ( syr, ܡܟܬܒܐ ܕܣܘܬܪܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ, Mawtbo d'Sutoro Suryoyo, ar, سوتورو), commonly known as the Sutoro or the Sutoro Police, is a Assyrian people, Christian Assyrian/Syriac Police, police force in Jazir ...

police also provided security. The elections in the Jazeera and Euphrates 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, ( ku, Herêma Cizîrê, ar, إقليم الجزيرة, syr, ܦܢܝܬܐ ܕܓܙܪܬܐ, Ponyotho d'Gozarto), is the largest of the three original regions of the de facto Autonomous Administration of Nor ...

, 135,611 from the

Euphrates Region Euphrates Region, formerly Kobanî Canton, ( ku, Herêma Firatê, ar, إقليم الفرات, syc, ܦܢܝܬܐ ܕܦܪܬ, translit=Ponyotho d'Prat) is the central of three original regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syr ...

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 (KNC, , ENKS; ar, المجلس الوطني الكوردي ''al-Majlis al-Waṭaniyy Al-Kurdi'') is a Syrian Kurdish political party. While the KNC had initially more international support than the ruling Democrat ...

in Syria announced a

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict s ...

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

Kurdish people ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

References

{{Syrian Civil War 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