Скачать или смотреть Syria's first parliamentary elections since Assad's fall raise questions of inclusivity

(3 Oct 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
1. Aerial drone shot of Umayyad Square +MUTE+
2. Exterior of Syrian parliament building
3. Syrian flags outside the Parliament building
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nawar Nijmeh, spokesperson for the Higher Committee for the Syrian People's Assembly Elections:
“The process is, of course, usually parliamentary elections are held through the direct election of citizens, but this ideal is almost impossible now for several reasons. The first reason is the demographic structure of the Syrian society and the presence of large numbers of refugees and displaced inside and outside Syria. Also, there is no solid proof Identification documents for the Syrian people. All of this can lead to the result of manipulating any direct election. Therefore, we will not guarantee the fairness of these elections or its credibility. Therefore, we decided to go to another mechanism. It is partially followed even in the United States of America. There is a kind of indirect election. But the difference in the mechanism that we followed is that the electoral bodies that will make the election process are selected bodies and not elected by the citizens. This method is not exemplary, but it is the most realistic at the moment.”
5. Close of hands
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nawar Nijmeh, spokesperson for the Higher Committee for the Syrian People's Assembly Elections: “We took care of all the components of Syrian people in the formation of the electoral bodies. Since these bodies are selected and we have the control over the selection process, so we had to be fair to all the components, classes and minorities in Syria. We were very careful about the real representation of them. The issue of women was a very important issue for the Supreme Elections Committee. Women must have a real participation. We were not satisfied with the 20% of the elected bodies. We exceeded this number in many governorates, in addition to a great public awareness of the importance of the role of women in the coming period.”
7. Traffic in Governorate square
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nawar Nijmeh, spokesperson for the Higher Committee for the Syrian People's Assembly Elections:
“The responsibility for what is happening now in Sweida, Raqqa and al-Hasakah lies with the military forces that control these areas. They have long been paying lip service to democracy and political participation. When the time came for these elections, we saw no cooperation at all in this regard. Therefore, we are keen to hold elections in these areas at any time., but we are also keen to practice our work independently and with fairness.”
9. Traffic
10. Mutasem Syoufi, executive director of The Day After organization entering his office
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Mutasem Syoufi, executive director of The Day After organization:
“The High Commission did not tell us how many challenges they received. Who was challenged? What did they do with these challenges? So all of a sudden, we were surprised by new lists of electoral colleges where people were removed, and other people were added to these electoral colleges without justification.”
12. Close of hand
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mutasem Syoufi, executive director of The Day After organization:
“The main issue now is the credibility. Are we going through a credible transition? Inclusive transition represents all of Syria. I think we're not there, and I think that we have to take serious and brave steps to correct all the mistakes that were committed over the past nine months.”
14. Aerial drone shot of Umayyad Square +MUTE+
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