Syrian media reported on Sunday that MP Abdul Hamid Al-Awak had been elected speaker of the Syrian People’s Assembly, becoming the first person to hold the post since the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s government.
Al-Awak secured 99 votes out of 206 ballots cast, defeating his two rivals in the parliamentary election.
MP Moayad Qablawi received 75 votes, while MP Ramez Kouraj won 31. One blank ballot was also recorded during the vote.
The election was held in the presence of members of the assembly and marked the first parliamentary vote to choose a speaker during Syria’s new political phase.
Who Is Abdul Hamid Al-Awak?
Al-Awak comes from the Ghuwairan district of Hasakah and studied law at the University of Aleppo.
He began his professional career in the legal affairs department of the Tigris and Khabur Basin Directorate before joining the judiciary in 1998. He served as a judge for 16 years.
Al-Awak later pursued postgraduate studies in Lebanon and received a doctorate from Beirut Arab University. His doctoral thesis examined the impact of the Arab uprisings on the legal status of presidents, focusing on the experiences of Tunisia and Egypt.
He left Syria in 2014 after being summoned by the country’s State Security apparatus over his support for the uprising.
Al-Awak said that, while working as a judge, he refused to order the detention of protesters brought before him and issued acquittals in their cases. He also said he intervened with other judges to secure the release of people detained for participating in demonstrations.
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