#Decentralization_Path_to_Recovery_and_Peacebuilding
Sunday, September 18, has been set as the date for the 2022 local administration elections, in accordance with Decree 216 of 2022, issued today by the President of the Republic.
According to the executive instructions of the General Elections Law, the voting procedures in local administrative council elections are as follows:
- There are two ballot boxes in each polling station, one for the elections of the members of the provincial council and the other for the elections of the members of the administrative unit council.
- The voter receives from the chairman or member of the committee two sealed ballot envelopes, one for electing members of the provincial council and the other for electing members of the administrative unit council. Then the voter enters the secret room alone and, while inside the room, places the two ballot papers in the envelopes handed to him, whether this paper is printed or written and whether he prepared it in advance or wrote it in the mentioned room.
- After the voter leaves the secret room, the committee chairman or any of its members verifies the authenticity of the envelope and the presence of the committee’s seal on the envelope, then asks the voter to place each envelope in the box designated for it.
- The head of the committee or any of its members shall record the voter’s full name, the source of his ID card and his national number in the centre’s election register (Form No. 13).
“The philosophy of participation in local communities is based on the idea of administrative decentralization because the people of Mecca know their valleys best.”
No objection has been announced so far by any candidate regarding the election process or even the sorting in any of the electoral districts in all governorates.
“Local Administration Law (107) must be amended so that councils target empowering women in their work.”
Pursuant to its powers stipulated in Article (64) of the General Elections Law, the Supreme Judicial Committee decides to extend the voting period for two hours in all polling stations in Syria until nine o’clock in the evening of this day.
The percentage of women in the national unity lists issued today for candidates for membership in the executive offices of local councils was only 8% for the executive offices of provincial councils, and only 10.01% for the offices of the councils of provincial city centers.
After the percentage of women in all elected provincial councils reached 11.5%, the National Unity lists published today showed the absence of women from the membership of the executive offices of the provincial councils of Damascus - Rif Dimashq - Aleppo - and Raqqa, despite the fact that the percentage of women in the provincial councils of Aleppo and Damascus is 17%, in the provincial council of Rif Dimashq 12%, and in the provincial council of Raqqa 8%.
As for women heading the executive offices in the councils, the lists showed that only one woman was nominated to head the executive office of the Tartous Governorate Council for the second time in a row, while women ran for the presidency of the executive office of the city councils in Maaloula, Jaramana, and the Assad suburb in the Damascus countryside, and in the city of Kafr Takharim in Idlib Governorate, the city of Bzagha in Aleppo Governorate, and the city of Salamiyah in Hama Governorate, so that the number of executive offices in the governorate councils and city councils for which women ran for presidency reached only 8 out of 150 councils, at a rate of only 5.3%.
The percentage of independent candidates running for local council elections in Hama Governorate was 6.34%, while the percentage of women was 17.4% of the total number of accepted candidates, which was 7,869 candidates, including 4,700 in category A and 3,169 candidates in category B. As for the candidates holding university degrees, their percentage was 33.6%.
The Central Command of the Arab Socialist Baath Party issued today the national unity lists of candidates for membership in the executive offices of the provincial and city councils.
According to these lists, the percentage of independents in the provincial council offices amounted to only 12.5% of the seats, while the Baath Party won about 80% of the seats, and only 9.5% was allocated to the rest of the front parties.
The percentage of independents in the National Unity lists for the executive offices of the city councils of the governorate centers rose to 15.4%, and the percentage of the rest of the front parties rose to 10.3%, compared to a decrease in the Baath percentage to 74.2% of the seats.
