ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s parliamentary elections “do not represent” the will of the Syrian people, a senior official from the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) said, adding that decisions made by the new legislature “will not be considered binding” for Rojava, which was excluded from the electoral process.

In a late Sunday statement on X, Bedran Ciya Kurd, an advisor to the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), sharply criticized the electoral process as “lacking a democratic electoral law that guarantees the participation of all Syrians without discrimination,” and “not based on genuine Syrian national consensus.”

He further stated that “the mechanisms followed in this process are inconsistent with international standards for free and fair elections” and fall short of the spirit of United Nations resolutions supporting a political solution in Syria.

The remaining 70 seats will be appointed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa under a constitutional declaration enacted in March.

Syria on Sunday held its first legislative elections since the fall of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. The indirect vote saw 6000 regional subcommittees select 140 of the 210 parliamentary seats from among 1,600 candidates. The remaining 70 seats will be appointed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa under a constitutional declaration enacted in March.

Seat distribution announced in August allocated Aleppo province the largest share with 32 seats, followed by Rif Dimashq, Homs, Hama, and Idlib with 12 each. Damascus and Deir ez-Zor received 10 seats each, while Latakia and Tartus were given seven and five, respectively.

In the Kurdish-administered northeast, Hasaka and Raqqa were assigned ten and six seats, and the southern Druze-majority Suwayda province three. However, voting in Rojava and Suwayda was postponed due to what Damascus called “a lack of a secure and stable environment.”

DAANES officials have rejected claims of insecurity in Rojava and labeled the vote “exclusionary and undemocratic,” urging the international community not to recognize the results.

On Monday, Kurd reiterated that “the elected members and the resulting assembly from these elections do not represent the diverse political will of Syrian society,” and reaffirmed that Rojava considers the legislature’s decisions “non-binding.”

He also denounced the election as “a mere attempt to legitimize an interim authority that does not represent all spectrums of the Syrian people.”

Similarly, Shukri Sheikhani, a general council member of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) - the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto military of Rojava - told Rudaw that the process “is incomplete because it has many shortcomings and is far from fulfilling the demands and hopes of the Syrian people, especially after 15 years of revolution.”

The final results of the Syrian parliamentary elections are expected to be announced later on Monday.