President al-Sharaa and no more Baath party: What else has Syria announced?

President al-Sharaa and no more Baath party: What else has Syria announced?

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Nearly two months after the ouster of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, former opposition commander and Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has been named president for a transitional period, Syrian state media reported.

“It’s a monumental day,” said Al Jazeera’s correspondent Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Damascus. “It gives more clarity for the way forward for this country because there was ambiguity on what this new administration was going to look like.”

What was announced today?

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Wednesday, citing commander Hassan Abdel Ghani, that al-Sharaa has been named president until elections are held.

Al-Sharaa was also authorised to form a temporary legislative council for the transitional phase, which will carry out its task until a new constitution is adopted.

All military factions in Syria, including Syria’s army and security forces, as well as al-Sharaa’s own Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), were dissolved, as was the country’s constitution, and al-Assad’s Baath party – which had ruled the country for more than 60 years prior to al-Assad’s overthrow.

The announcements emerged during a meeting in Damascus attended by commanders of armed groups that fought alongside al-Sharaa’s HTS to oust al-Assad from power on December 8.

“[Al-Sharaa] is trying to reassure them that they are going to be not just represented but also will be part of a new Syria,” Bin Javaid said.

When will Syria hold elections?

We don’t know how long the transitional period will be, as there is currently no timetable for Syria to hold elections.

Al-Sharaa has previously said that organising an election in the war-ravaged country could take as long as four years.

Speaking with Saudi Arabian broadcaster Al Arabiya in December, al-Sharaa said that drafting a new constitution could take up to three years.

He said elections would likely be held after four years because a new census needs to be conducted to specify the number of eligible voters in the country.

“Any meaningful elections will require conducting a comprehensive population census,” he said.

Who is Ahmed al-Sharaa?

Al-Sharaa, who was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, was the leader of HTS, a group that became the most powerful armed opposition force in Syria and led the offensive culminating in the ouster of al-Assad last December.

HTS was formerly an affiliate of al-Qaeda but has sought to moderate itself in recent years. Instead, al-Sharaa has positioned himself and his group as credible caretakers of a Syria liberated from al-Assad, who brutally repressed a popular uprising during the Arab Spring in 2011.

Since al-Assad’s removal, HTS has become the de facto ru

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