Local committees in Syria cast their ballots for members of a transitional parliament in a process criticized as undemocratic, with a third of the new lawmakers to be appointed directly by interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The assembly's formation is expected to consolidate the power of al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces led a coalition that toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.
Members of the local committees queued up to vote at Syria's National Library, formerly the Assad National Library, with the electoral commission saying in the evening that "the voting has ended and the counting is under way."
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