Syria’s al-Sharaa says elections could take up to five years

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said Monday organizing elections could take up to five years, the week after he was appointed interim president and less than two months after ousting Bashar al-Assad.

“My estimate is that the period of time will be approximately between four and five years until the elections,” al-Sharaa said in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on a private Syrian television channel.

In late December, he told Al Arabiya the election process could take four years.

The infrastructure for the vote “needs to be re-established, and this takes time,” Sharaa added on Monday.

He also promised “a law regulating political parties,” adding that Syria would be “a republic with a parliament and an executive government.”

Al-Sharaa also said that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had expressed readiness to turn over their arms to central state authorities, but differences over some details persisted.

Military commanders last Wednesday appointed al-Sharaa interim president, after opposition forces toppled al-Assad on December 8, ending more than five decades of the family’s iron-fisted rule.

Al-Sharaa’s appointment has been welcomed by key regional players Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

Al-Sharaa was also tasked with forming an interim legislature and the al-Assad-era parliament was dissolved, along with the Baath party which ruled Syria for decades.

Syria’s constitution was also repealed, and the al-Assad-era army and security forces were dissolved, as were armed groups including al-Sharaa’s “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (HTS) group.

A transitional government has been installed to steer Syria until March 1.