The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) is bringing back the fundamental practice of democratic elections after several years. On 11 June, more than 2.5 million Kurds will be able to cast their votes for their mayors, according to a report by the Kurdish Peace Institute.
The last elections held in the region were in 2017, and the last local elections in 2016. Since then, tensions in the region have been exacerbated by Turkish military offensives, the region under AANES control has expanded after the territorial defeat of ISIS, and two years of discussions and debates led earlier this year to the ratification of a new Social Contract, which stipulates that mayorships shall consist of female and male executives working in partnership, according to the Kurdish Peace Institute.
The Administration’s recently formed High Electoral Commission stated that 5,336 candidates will run for co-mayorship over 134 municipalities in seven provinces: Al-Jazeera (Cizîrê), Deir Ez-Zor (Dêrezor), Raqqa (Reqa), Al-Furat (Firat) – including Kobani (Kobanê), Manbij (Minbic), Afrin (Efrîn), Al-Shahba (Şehba) and al-Tabqa (Tabqa).
While residents of Al-Hasakah (Hesekê) hope for better public services such as access to clean water and residents from Qamishlo are still undecided as to which candidate would serve the people better, Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and main ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, claims that these elections are simply a pretext to divide Syria, and Erdoğan himself vows “not to allow the foundation of a terrorist state beyond Turkey’s borders,”
In the meantime Turkey is preparing a military offensive in northern Iraq and monitoring the border almost around the clock with its drones. Kurdish officials are concerned that they may make a sudden strike to try and sabotage the elections. Co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) Salih Muslim voices the commitment of the AANES: “Turkey is exhibiting extreme intolerance towards the elections, but the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria will certainly carry them out.”
US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Thursday (30 June): “So you’ve heard us say this before, that any elections that occur in Syria should be free, fair, transparent, and inclusive, as is called for in UN Security Council Resolution 2254, and we don’t think that the conditions for such elections are in place in northeast Syria at the present time. And we’ve conveyed this to a range of actors in northeast Syria.” Muslim’s response to this is that Patel’s statement was made “because it was on the agenda of the Turkish state”.
