Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa is expected to respond to preliminary parliamentary election results released on Monday, which saw modest results for women and minorities, in order for the assembly to meet the touted 20 percent quota of seats for women.
Six women were elected in the vote, and one of those, Lina Aizouki from Tartous, was also the only Christian to win a seat. At least one Ismaili Muslim, two Alawites, three Turkmen, and three Kurds will also be represented in the upcoming parliament.
The other women to win seats were Mai Khalouf from Safita, Rankin Abdo from Afrin-Aleppo, Nour Jandali from Homs, Momena Arabo from Hama, and Rola Daya from Latakia, according to a list released by the electoral body and checked by The New Arab.
Earlier, authorities said that only three percent of the vote went to women candidates, despite making up 14 percent of the 1,578 people who ran in the indirect elections.
Syria's election saw appointed committees vote for 140 seats in the Syrian parliament, two-thirds of the total, with the remaining third selected by the president himself.
The Chairman of the High Elections Commission, Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, indicated that Sharaa might step in and appoint more women to the 210-seat People's Assembly of Syria to ensure a more balanced chamber.
"We were keen to represent all components, and we were also keen to include women in the People's Assembly," he told Syria TV. "Unfortunately, women's representation was only 3 percent after the counting process."
The format has led many to describe the vote as "selections, not elections" due to the president hand-picking 70 seats and the centralised process for the remaining seats. But few Syrians who spoke to The New Arab believed the time was right for formal elections, due to the huge number of unregistered displaced Syrians, insecurity, and Syria's nascent political scene.
Parts of Syria remain wracked by instability or outside government control, with Suweida province and North East Syria not taking part in the elections, and the 19 seats allocated for these regions remaining empty.
One Alawite candidate in Tartous province was assassinated over the weekend, which the government indicated was carried out by remnants of the former Assad regime.
The Syrian Democratic Council, the political body in the north east, which remains under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, slammed the election as a "farce" and said it will serve to deepen divisions in the country.
"Syrians aspire to genuine elections that express their will and represent them all, as this is a national right that cannot be waived or dispensed with, and a fundamental pillar in the process of building a unified democratic state based on justice, citizenship, and equality among all Syrians," the group said in a statement.
"No electoral process can be legitimate unless it is conducted with the participation and representation of all Syrians, both at home and abroad, and under international supervision that guarantees integrity and transparency, on the path to ending the division and achieving a just and lasting peace in Syria."
Sharaa hailed the elections, which come ten months after the fall of the authoritarian Assad regime, describing the vote as "historic".
It is hoped that free and fair parliamentary elections will take place at a later date, when displaced Syrians are registered to vote, and institutions and infrastructure are rebuilt.
Syrians remain mostly pragmatic about the current elections, understanding that this is far from what they envisioned for a democratic process, but a necessary step for now.
"It was an imperfect election, of course, as many even in developed countries are, but expected given that we are transitioning from decades of authoritarianism to what we hope will be more representative governance, but it is a start nonetheless," Dr. Noor Ghazal Aswad, Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama, told The New Arab.
"Syrians are beginning to see politics as something that belongs to them, not to the intelligence branches or a single ruling family, but to ordinary citizens who dare to imagine governance as collective responsibility. From it we can outline the beginnings of Syria's political landscape."