The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, also known as Rojava, is under increasing pressure to cancel local elections set for June 11.
The Kurdish National Council (KNC) has called the elections controlled by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), saying they lack legitimacy.
The US Embassy in Damascus has also urged the Kurdish-led self-administration to postpone the elections, citing unfavorable conditions in the region.
The planned municipal elections would take place in seven cantons, including Afrin and Manbij in Aleppo province; the Euphrates and Tabqa regions in Raqqa province; and areas in eastern Deir Ezzor and the Jazira region in Hasakah province.
The elections would elect mayors and council members at 1,792 polling stations.
On Friday, the US Embassy in Damascus issued a statement, stressing that any elections in Syria should be “free, fair, transparent, and inclusive, as outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 2254.”
The embassy urged the self-administration in northeast Syria to postpone the upcoming elections, citing unfavorable conditions in the region. This position was communicated to a range of key actors in Rojava.
The US opposition to upcoming elections has unsettled the civil administration in northeast Syria. The US also linked its support to resolving disputes among key Kurdish factions and resuming stalled negotiations since 2020.
Bara Sabri, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, noted that the US has clearly distanced itself from these elections.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that Washington “signals that the elections do not meet democratic standards and has conveyed this clearly to decision-makers in the region.”
The US supports the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the military wing of Rojava, as part of the international coalition against ISIS.
On its part, Türkiye also increased its offensive against the self-Administration in northern Syria.
Türkiye has a history of carrying out several major military campaigns against Rojava, claiming that the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, is the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Ankara views the PKK as a terrorist organization.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during military exercises in Izmir, stated that Ankara is “closely following the aggressive actions by the terrorist organization against the territorial integrity of our country and of Syria under the pretext of an election.”
