Syria's parliamentary election, the first to take place since the downfall of former president Bashar Al Assad, is to go ahead next month without the involvement of the Druze-majority province of Sweida and two Kurdish-held areas due to security concerns.
The Higher Committee for People's Assembly Elections said the ballot would be delayed in the northern provinces of Hasakah and Raqqa, as well as Sweida, until a "safe environment" is in place, state news agency Sana reported.
Seats allocated to the three provinces will remain vacant until elections can be held there, commission spokesman Nawar Najmeh told the agency.
Hundreds of people were killed in Sweida last month in clashes involving Druze fighters, Bedouin tribesmen and government forces. Israel also intervened with strikes, claiming its attacks were to protect the Druze. But experts at the time warned Israel was exploiting the violence to fuel instability in Syria.
After toppling Mr Al Assad in December, Syria's government, now led by President Ahmad Al Shara, dissolved the Assad-era parliament and adopted a temporary constitution for a five-year transition.
The interim charter has been criticised for concentrating power in his hands after decades of autocracy under Mr Al Assad and for failing to reflect Syria's ethnic and religious diversity.
The parliamentary election is planned for between September 15 and 20. Appointed local bodies will pick two thirds of the 210 legisdlators, while Mr Al Shara will name the rest.
The planning for the first election under the government comes after waves of violence in Alawite and Druze areas of the country, and amid concerns of fighting in the Kurdish-held region. Parts of Syria remain outside of government control, with much of the north-east coming under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Implementation of a March 10 deal on integrating Kurdish institutions into those of the central government has been held up by differences between the two sides.
The Kurdish-led administration issued a statement calling the parliamentary selection process "a superficial step that does not respond to the demands for a comprehensive political solution that Syrians need".
It also denounced the decision to delay the vote in some areas. "Any decision taken through this approach of exclusion will not concern us, and we will not consider it binding for the peoples and regions of northern and eastern Syria," it added.
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
