Syria's parliament is set to announce President Ahmed al-Sharaa's appointment of the remaining 70 MPs on Wednesday, in what has been described as an important step in finalising Syria 's People's Assembly.
The announcement will see 70 vacant seats filled, accounting for one-third of the legislature, and will finalise a process that has been underway since the adoption of the interim constitution .
Al-Sharaa was appointed as president of the transitional government following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
The appointment of the 70 MPs comes after the president, in March 2025, signed a constitutional declaration stating there would be a five-year transitional period, with a 210-member parliament where he directly appoints one-third of the members. The rest are chosen indirectly through electoral committees. The New Arab takes a closer look at key questions that have emerged on the subject. When were the previous elections? Elections had previously been held on 5 October 2025 for 140 members of the parliament, though these representatives were elected indirectly, through electoral bodies.
Some 6,000 electors cast their ballots for 1,570 candidates that had received prior approval of electoral committees appointed by Sharaa, and who had campaigned for their seats through seminars and debates the week before the election.
Due to Syria's lack of unification, with much of the north-east still under the authority of Kurdish-led authorities, and the southern province of Suweida under the control of Druze armed groups , not all 140 members had been elected in October.
Much of the country has since come back under the control of the government in Damascus, with elections held in Raqqa in March and Hasakeh in May. Elections are yet to be held in Suweida, however. Why does Sharaa get to choose appointments? The president's control over 70 appointments, along with the indirect election of the majority of the parliament, means ordinary Syrian citizens have not elected their own MPs.
The electoral committee said this was due to a lack of reliable population data following the mass displacement of Syrians during the country's 14-year-long civil war, which also saw millions become refugees outside the country.
The president's control was also justified on grounds of balancing parliamentary representation, for instance, in appointing more women and minorities to the chamber as well as experts.
This is especially important as only six women were elected to parliament in October's election.
Following the vote, Sharaa is expected to address these imbalances by strengthening the representation of major cities, as well as increasing Kurdish participation .
Haian Dukhan, a lecturer in politics and international relations at Teesside University, told The New Arab that “Sharaa’s appointments are about political balancing as much as building institutions.”
He noted that with women, minorities and some regions having weak parliamentary representation in the previous voting round, the new appointments are likely to account for this, and give the parliament greater social and geographic inclusion.
"The real question is whether the appointments build a more representative parliament or just make it look more representative while power stays around the presidency,” he added What happens next? With the roles set to be filled on Wednesday, the next step will see the first sessions of parliament held, though this is yet to be officially announced.
The first session will include a constitutional oath, the election of a Speaker of Parliament, and the organisation of parliamentary committees.
The Speaker of Parliament is speculated to be Syrian legal expert Dr Abdulhamid al-Awak, according to The New Arab , though this is yet to be confirmed.
The parliament will then begin evaluating legislation set to be discussed and approved over the transitional period.
This includes a transitional justice law that will provide the legal mechanisms for the trials of former regime figures on account of war crimes, which is currently already underway with several figures in Damascus' Fourth Criminal Court.