AhlulBayt News Agency - A woman has for the first time been chosen as parliament speaker in Syria at the first ordinary round of the country’s new legislative term.
People's Assembly of Syria held its first session on Monday after the April 13 parliamentary vote and elected Hadiyeh al-Abbas as the first female speaker in history of the Arab country's legislature, marking a historic event in the war-stricken country.
The female politician, 58, holds a PhD in agricultural engineering from Aleppo University. She held positions at the National Union of Syrian Students (Dayr al-Zawr-Raqqah branch) and she was a member of leadership of Dayr al-Zawr branch of al-Ba’ath Arab Socialist Party (1988-1998).
She was elected as a member of the People’s Assembly of the eighth legislative term (2003-2007) and has been a member of the Assembly's National Reconciliation Committee representing Dayr al-Zawr.
The Syrian electoral commission announced on April 17 that the National Unity coalition, comprising the ruling Ba’ath Party and its allies, had won 200 of the 250 seats at the People’s Assembly (Majlis al-Sha’ab).
Out of 8,834,994 eligible voters, more than five million cast their votes in government-controlled areas across the country on April 13. The figure was equal to 57.56 percent.
The vote was the second parliamentary ballot since the beginning of the war in 2011. The last parliamentarian elections were held in 2012.
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