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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States on Friday called on Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria (Rojava) not to proceed with planned elections, citing a lack of free and fair conditions weeks ahead of a vote that has received opposition from neighboring Turkey.
“Any elections that occur in Syria should be free, fair, transparent and inclusive, as called for in UN Security Council Resolution 2254. We don't think that the conditions for such elections are in place in northeast Syria at the present time. We’ve conveyed this to a range of actors in northeast Syria,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a press briefing on Thursday in response to a question from Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda.
On Friday, the US embassy in Syria added to the statement, saying that they have urged the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) “not to proceed with the elections at this time.”
Hours later, the DAANES said it is committed to holding the elections as scheduled.
The people of Rojava as well as other Kurdish-held areas such as Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor will elect mayors on June 11.
The Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC), the main Kurdish opposition group in Rojava, is boycotting the elections. The party members of the umbrella group have come under numerous attacks blamed on armed people affiliated with the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), the political wing of the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The YPG is the backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that territorially defeated the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2019 after five years of fierce fighting.
Sulaiman Oso, a senior official from the ENKS, told Rudaw English on Thursday that the elections will not be fair because the PYD is militarily powerful and claimed that thousands of security force members will be forced to vote for the ruling party’s candidates.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday 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,” The Associated Press cited him as saying.
“Turkey will never allow the separatist organization to establish (a terror state) just beyond its southern borders in the north of Syria and Iraq,” he added.
The Rojava government responded to Erdogan’s remarks, denying that the polls threaten Turkey’s security.
"These elections do not target any political party, whether internally or externally, its primary goal is to achieve good service for the citizens of NE Syria. Therefore, these elections will enhance stability and peaceful coexistence in the region, and will also play a positive role in developing the comprehensive Syrian solution,” the executive council of the Rojava administration said in a statement on Wednesday.
Updated at 8:28 pm with DAANES reaction
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