Damaskus (AFP) – Members of Damascus’s local electoral committee cast their votes to select Syria’s new transitional parliament. The process has been criticised as undemocratic, with a third of the members appointed by interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa. The parliament’s formation is set to consolidate the power of Sharaa, whose Islamist forces led a coalition that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.
