ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Polling centers across several Syrian provinces opened towards voters on Sunday, in the country’s first parliamentary elections since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa set to hand-select 70 seat out of the legislature’s total 210.

“The approved polling centers in the provinces open their doors to start the voting process and receive the members of the electoral bodies to cast their votes, marking the first process of electing members of the Syrian People's Assembly [parliamnet] after liberation,” said Syria’s state-run SANA outlet on Sunday morning.

Areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) and the southern Druze heartland of Suwayda were set to be left out of the elections in late August. In mid-September however, the decision was reversed for the Kurdish strongholds, Nawar Najma, spokesperson for the supreme committee for the elections, told SANA.

“Discussions were held with a number of citizens in some areas of Raqqa and Hasakah, which are under the legitimate government in Damascus, leading to the decision to hold elections in these areas as they are under state authority,” Najma told the Syrian state-owned outlet.

Contrary to SANA’s September report, AFP said Sunday that the vote is set to exclude Suwayda as well as areas under the control of AANES, as they fall outside of the Damascus government.

A total of 1,578 candidates will be running in the parliamentary elections across the country’s 50 constituencies, including 221 women, comprising 14 percent of the total number.

The legislature will consist of 210 members, one-third of whom will be appointed by the country’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Najma told state media on Saturday that “polling centers in all regions have been equipped with all necessary means for the voting process,” adding that elections “will take place in the presence of local, Arab, and international media outlets.”

When the voting process ends, the ballot boxes will be opened and the vote-counting process will start, and “preliminary results will be announced successively across all regions of Syria,” Najma stated.