Syria held parliamentary elections on Sunday in the Kurdish-majority northeastern province of Hasakah and the town of Kobani — areas only recently brought back under central government control — completing the final stage of the country's first legislative vote since the fall of the Assad dynasty.

The two regions, located in Syria's far northeast, had been under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for more than a decade. In January 2026, a government offensive led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa's Islamist-led authorities pushed the SDF out and reintegrated the areas with Damascus. Because of this, Hasakah and Kobani sat out the nationwide People's Assembly elections held last October, making Sunday's vote a follow-up to fill the remaining 11 seats in parliament — nine representing Hasakah and two representing Kobani, which falls within Aleppo province.

The electoral process itself is not fully democratic by conventional standards. While previous parliamentary votes under former President Bashar Assad functioned as little more than internal competitions within his ruling Baath Party, the new system under al-Sharaa also falls short of open pluralism: most seats are chosen by electoral colleges within each district rather than by direct popular vote, and al-Sharaa retains the power to directly appoint one-third of all legislators. Some participants welcomed the process nonetheless. "There is a great democratic atmosphere here," said Mukhalaf al-Hatthal, a voter in Qamishli, Hasakah's largest city, who said his main concerns were infrastructure, agriculture, and the maintenance of peace. Others were more cautious; electoral college member Masoud al-Majeed expressed hope that the voting system would evolve, saying the current model does not adequately represent all Syrians.

The elections come at a fraught moment for Syria. The country is still recovering from a civil war that began as an uprising in 2011 and continued until 2024, leaving millions in poverty and deep uncertainty among ethnic and religious minorities now living under Islamist governance. The Kurdish population of the northeast, long accustomed to a degree of self-rule under the SDF's administration, faces a particularly uncertain transition. Sunday's vote, however imperfect, represents an attempt to draw these communities into Syria's fragile new political order — and, for many residents, a first tangible step toward representation after years of conflict and authoritarian rule.