Syrian Kurds to hold second phase of elections on Dec.1

BEIRUT: Elections organised by the Kurdish-led authorities of northern Syria will be held on Dec.1, part of a process leading to the creation of a local parliament by early 2018, a spokesman said on Saturday.

Ibrahim Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish party, said the elections would be for local town and city councils, with more than 30 parties and entities participating.

Northern Syrians held the irst phase of elections in September, where voters picked leaders for some 3,700 communes spread across three regions of the north where Kurdish groups have established autonomous rule since 2011, when Syria’s civil war erupted.

Elections will culminate in January with the election of an assembly that will act as a parliament for a federal system of government in northern Syria.

Meanwhile, Syria’s main opposition group selected a new chief negotiator on Friday ahead of a new round of Un-backed peace negotiations with the Damascus government set to kick off next week.

Nasr Hariri said the opposition was going to Geneva on Nov. 28 to hold direct talks and was ready to discuss “everything on the negotiating table.”

Hariri said the Russian proposal to hold a congress of the Syrian government and opposition in Sochi did not serve the political process.

Hariri called on the international community, including Russia, “to focus all our work on serving the political process according to the Un-sponsored Geneva track in order to save time and achieve the desired goal.”