Rojava authorities announce elections

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Authorities of the Kurdish autonomous enclave in northern Syria, or Rojava, have set three election dates in the region beginning in late September.

 

The founding council of the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria announced on Friday that they set September 22 as the day for communal elections, and November 3 for local elections in villages, municipalities, cantons, and towns.

 

The council also declared that elections for the Northern Syria Democratic parliament will take place on January 1, 2018.

 

The council simultaneously passed four declarations with respect to its management system of Rojava. 

 

According to the first point, 60 percent of representatives in the national parliament will be elected directly by voters through ballot boxes.

 

The other forty percent of the parliament’s seats will be reserved for minorities via a quota system.  

 

There must also be equal participation of men and women, the declaration reads.

 

Each member of the parliament and the councils is entitled to run for elections for two terms.

 

According to bills passed by the council, Rojava consists of three regions: Afrin in the west, Euphrates in the centre, and Jazira in the east.

 

Afrin region includes Afrin canton and Shahba canton including Manbij town. The Euphrates region consists of Kobane canton and Girespi. The last region, Jazira, includes Qamishli and Hasakah.

 

In late December, the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria was declared by the founding members of the self-declared Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. This move was widely rejected by the Syrian government, describing it as an “unlawful action that “jeopardizes the country’s territorial integrity” and calling on the Kurds to drop their demand for a federal system and hoist the Syrian flag on all government buildings and offices. 

 

The Kurdish authorities also announced they had dropped the word Rojava, a Kurdish word for Western Kurdistan, from the official name of the federation of northern Syria.