Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia (Plurinational State of) Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia Democratic People's Republic of Korea Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran (Islamic Republic of) Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia (Federated States of) Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Republic of Korea Republic of Moldova Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka State of Palestine Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Türkiye Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland United Republic of Tanzania United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Viet Nam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Syrian Arab Republic
Women in decision-making positions
7%
Members of local deliberative bodies are women (1,145 elected women)
No woman is Head of State or Government
10%
Parliamentarians are women
12%
Ministers are women

Government organization

Spheres of government

The Syrian Arab Republic is a unitary republic with two spheres of government: central and local.

One tier of central government and one tier of local government composed of local councils.

  • Head of State: The President is directly elected by voters.
  • Head of Government: The Prime Minister is appointed by the President.
  • Legislative body: The People’s Assembly is a unicameral legislature whose members are directly elected by voters.
  • Executive body: The Council of Ministers is composed of the Prime Minister, deputy prime ministers, and ministers. The deputy prime ministers and ministers are appointed by the President.

  • Organization: Local government is organized into one tier of local councils.
  • Competencies: Local government is responsible for having its own budget, levying local taxes, ratifying contracts, and managing and acquiring assets.
  • Ministerial oversight: Ministry of Local Administration and Environment

Overview of local government

Local government composition

Deliberative body: The local council is composed of 10-50 elected members. A council president is elected by and from the local council to preside over it; the council president is not vested with executive powers.

Executive body: The executive office is composed of four to eight total members, including the head of government and additional appointed members.

Local government elections

Electoral system: majority/plurality (first-past-the-post)

  • The candidates are ranked in their sector according to the number of valid votes obtained by each of them, and the first candidates from each sector according to the number of seats allocated to them are considered to win the election. If two or more candidates obtain equal votes for the last seats from each sector, lots are drawn between them.

Source: General Election Law, 2014, article 77

Gender quotas: No

Additional quotas: Workers and farmers

  • The local administration councils consist of representatives from the following two sectors: 1) workers and farmers; 2) the rest of the people.
  • The percentage of representatives of the first sector (workers and farmers) is at least 50% in local councils. This percentage is not required when distributing seats between the two sectors in a single electoral district.

Source: General Election Law, 2014, article 24

  • Term length: 4 years
  • Last local elections: 2018
  • Next local elections: 2022

Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections

National legal framework on local government

  • Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic, 1973 (amended through 2012);
  • General Election Law, 2014;
  • Local Administration Law, 2011.

There are constitutional provisions that establish local government in the Syrian Arab Republic. According to Articles 12, 130, and 131 of the Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic of 1973 (amended through 2012), “democratically elected councils at the national or local level shall be institutions through which citizens exercise their role in sovereignty, state-building and leading society. The Syrian Arab Republic consists of administrative units; and the law states their number, boundaries, authorities and the extent to which they enjoy the status of a legal entity, financial and administrative independence. The organization of local administration units is based on applying the principle of decentralization of authorities and responsibilities. The law states the relationship between these units and the central authority, their mandate, financial revenues and control over their work. It also states the way their heads are appointed or elected, their authorities and the authorities of heads of sectors. Local administration units shall have councils elected in a general, secret, direct and equal manner.”

The People’s Assembly is responsible for establishing the national legal framework on local government. The key piece of legislation which regulates local government is the Local Administration Law of 2011, which provides for the decentralization of powers by way of concentrating them in the hands of the people, implementing the principle of democracy, which makes the people the source of all power by expanding the powers of the boards of the administrative units to enable them to perform their functions and tasks in the economic, social, cultural, and urban development of the administrative unit.

Sources:

1. UN Women: Data on share of women in local government as of 1 January 2025.

2. UN Women: Information on Head of State and Government as of 1 December 2025.

3. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU): Data on share of women in the single/lower chamber of parliament as of 1 January 2025.

4. UN Women: Data on share of women Cabinet ministers as of 1 January 2025.

5. Information on local government organization as of 1 January 2023.