After decades of dictatorship and a long civil war in Syria, the democratic process is going to be a new beginning. Government news agency Sana (SANA) on Sunday confirmed that for the first time on October 5, there will be parliamentary elections under the new administration. These elections are considered very important because the Asad family ruled the country for more than 50 years and the civil war destroyed Syria for the last ten years.

Start of election process
The first phase of the election process has been started by the Supreme Electoral Committee. This committee has formed sub-committees who will choose the election bodies. These bodies will accept the applications of the candidates and then prepare the initial list. After this, citizens will have the right to register objections to these candidates. After reviewing the objections, the final candidate list will be prepared. After this, members of the election bodies will vote, which will be completely directly and secret. The responsibility of counting of votes will be of the sub-committee and after that the initial results will be declared.

New structure of parliament
After the election, a total of 210 members will be formed by the People’s Assembly i.e. Parliament. One-third of these members will be appointed directly by the President, while the rest of the members will come from the election process. The final results will be notified through the President’s decree and after this the first session of the new Parliament will be held.

End of rule of Assad family
This change is a major turn in the political history of Syria. Following the end of more than five decades of the Assad family, the rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad from power in December. After this, interim President Ahmed al-Shra took over the reins of the country and formed a transitional government.

First step towards democracy
These elections are being considered as the first solid step for the people of Syrian towards democracy and stability. In this country, which has been struggling with dictatorship, rebellion and war for a long time, it is now expected that the political structure will be stable and citizens will get an opportunity to ensure their participation in the new government.