Members of local committees in Syria began on Sunday selecting members of a transitional parliament, in a process criticised as undemocratic, with a third of the members appointed directly by interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The assembly's formation is set to consolidate the power of Sharaa, whose Islamist forces led a coalition that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.

An AFP correspondent witnessed dozens of members of the local committees queueing at Syria's National Library, formerly called the Assad National Library, to cast their vote.

According to the organising committee, more than 1,500 candidates -- just 14 percent of them women -- are running for the assembly, which will have a renewable 30-month mandate.

Sharaa is to appoint 70 representatives out of the 210-member body.

The other two-thirds will be selected by local committees appointed by the electoral commission, which itself was appointed by Sharaa.

But southern Syria's Druze-majority Sweida province, which suffered sectarian bloodshed in July, and the country's Kurdish-held northeast are excluded from the process for now as they are outside Damascus's control, and their........

© International Business Times