Syria holds first elections since Assad's fall

Syria is holding parliamentary elections on Sunday, the first since the fall of the country's autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, who was ousted from power in a rebel offensive in December.

Under the 50-year rule of the Assad dynasty, Syria has held regular elections in which all Syrian citizens could vote.

But in practice, the Baath Party led by Assad always dominated parliament and the votes were widely considered a sham election.

However, Sunday's elections will not be a fully democratic process.

Instead, most of the seats in the People's Assembly will be voted on by electoral colleges in each district, while a third of the seats will be appointed directly by the interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa.

Despite not being a popular vote, the election results are likely to be taken as a barometer of how seriously the interim authorities take inclusion, especially of women and minorities.

The People's Assembly has 210 seats, of which two-thirds will be elected on Sunday and one-third will be appointed.

Elected seats are voted on by electoral colleges in districts across the country, with the number of seats for each district being distributed according to population.

The largest district is the one containing the city of Aleppo, where 700 members of the electoral college will vote to fill 14 seats, followed by the city of Damascus, with 500 members voting for 10 seats.

All candidates come from the electoral college membership.

After Assad's overthrow, the interim authorities dissolved all existing political parties, most of which were closely linked to Assad's government, and have yet to establish a system for registering new parties, so all candidates are running as individuals.

Interim authorities have said it would be impossible to create an accurate voter register and hold a popular vote at this stage, given that millions of Syrians have been displaced within or outside the country by the country's nearly 14-year civil war and many have lost personal documents.