Hama (Arabic: حماة) was an electoral district used to elect members of the Syrian People's Assembly between 1973 and 2025.
Electoral system
The electoral system used to elect the People's Assembly was introduced in 1973 and remained in use until the assembly's dissolution in 2025. Each governorate formed a single, large electoral district, except for Aleppo Governorate, which was divided into two districts: the city of Aleppo and the rural districts of Aleppo Governorate. Within each district, seats were awarded on a block-vote basis, with the candidates receiving the largest number of votes taking all of the seats allocated to it, and the assembly was composed of representatives of two sectors, "workers and peasants" and "other sectors of the people", with the former guaranteed at least half of its seats nationally. The number of seats, and their distribution among districts, was left to the president of the republic to set by decree rather than being fixed in law; the total was raised from 186 to 195 in 1981 and from 195 to 250 in 1990, after which the distribution among the fifteen electoral districts was not changed.
All Syrian citizens aged 18 and over were entitled to vote, other than those under legal guardianship, those with a mental illness affecting their legal capacity, and those convicted of a felony or a "dishonourable" misdemeanour, while serving members of the armed forces and police were barred from voting and from standing as candidates; candidates were further required to be at least 25 years old and to have held Syrian nationality for at least five years, a period raised to ten under the 2011 and 2014 electoral laws. During the 2011 reform of the electoral law, the replacement of this system was discussed because of its weak representativeness, but the large-district, block-vote system was retained; the reform instead moved the administration of elections from the Ministry of Interior and provincial governors to an independent Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections, a structure carried over into a further law passed in 2014 that consolidated the rules for presidential, parliamentary and local-council elections into a single statute.
Beyond being considered unrepresentative — a majoritarian, large-district system of a kind rejected by most electoral systems worldwide — the system has also been criticised for the unevenness of its distribution of seats between governorates. Based on the number of registered voters at the 2012 election, the average was around 59,000 voters per seat nationally, but the ratio varied considerably: about 37,800 voters per seat in Damascus and 51,500 in Tartus, compared with 71,700 in Al-Hasakah and 69,500 in the rural districts of Aleppo Governorate, with no mechanism beyond a presidential decree governing the size of constituencies or the allocation of seats between them.
Members +Elections MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) MPA(Party) 1973 Hussein al-Hussein(N/A) George Harika(N/A) Ibrahim Haydar(N/A) Muhammad Jumaa Taftanazi(N/A) Muhammad Eid Latmini(N/A) Mahmoud Khairbek(N/A) Mustafa al-Hamud(N/A) Rashid Issa(N/A) Abd al-Salam al-Qasim(N/A) Muhammad Wahud(N/A) Abd al-Ilah Hawwat(N/A) Fayez Issa(N/A) Munawwer Makhlouta(N/A) Ali Nabhan(N/A) Yahya Ardouk(N/A) Mahmoud Arwani(N/A) 16 seats 1974 Michel Risha(N/A) 1977 Khalil Mahfoud(N/A) Abd al-Karim Maat al-Ismail(N/A) Abd al-Mu’in Fatraoui(N/A) Mustafa Shakoush(N/A) Mustafa Halabiya(N/A) Hamed Hassan(N/A) Souad al-Sheikh Bakkour(N/A) Aziz Yaqub(N/A) Abd al-Majid al-Zaeem(N/A) Irfan Alloush(N/A) 17 seats 1981 Muhammad Eid Latmini(N/A) Ahmad al-Ahmad(N/A) Asaad al-Mustafa(N/A) Hassan Ghali(N/A) Michel Richa(N/A) Marwan al-Ibrahim(N/A) Ghasoun Murad Agha(N/A) rowspan="4" Walid Hamdoun(Ba'ath) Adib Youssef(N/A) Hikmat Fardawi(N/A) Munawwer Makhlouta(N/A) Mohsen Maalla(N/A) Abd al-Wahhab Sattam Saffaf(N/A) 1986 Ibrahim Zaarour(N/A) Amin al-Bakir(N/A) Ahmad al-Hadid(N/A) Muhammad al-Abboud(N/A) Youssef al-Khalifa(N/A) Ahmad al-Ali(N/A) Ahmad al-Khattab(N/A) Muhammad Habbal(N/A) 1990 Hussein Murshid Hussein(N/A) Fatima al-Saqqa(N/A) Fatima al-Jaha(N/A) Mustafa Issa(N/A) Ahmad al-Asaad(N/A) Mahmoud Hammoud(N/A) Ibrahim Haydar(N/A) rowspan="3" Abd al-Karim al-Ismail(Ind.) Mazoud al-Jassem(N/A) Mujib Salama(N/A) Walid Jad’an(N/A) Muhammad Shams al-Din Qanout(N/A) Muhammad Adnan Suleiman(N/A) Hassan Sabbahi(N/A) Louay al-Hilu(N/A) Hussein Muhammad Hussein(N/A) 1994 Amin Asfar(N/A) Jawid Salama(N/A) Khalil Mahfoud(N/A) Jamila Fallaheh(N/A) Ahmad al-Ahmad(N/A) Younes Salami(N/A) Hussein al-Hussein(N/A) Hassan Hassan(N/A) Ibrahim Khalil(N/A) Mustafa Abd al-Rahman(N/A) Abd al-Wahhab Sultan(N/A) Mamoun al-Jarf(N/A) rowspan="4" Souad al-Sheikh Bakkour(Ba'ath) Adnan Kizawi(N/A) Ghassan Othman(N/A) Yassin Waqqaf(N/A) Abd al-Qadir Mustafa(N/A) Ahmad al-Amouri(N/A) 1998 Ibrahim Jirjanazi(N/A) Sudayf al-Assad(N/A) Jawdat Afour(N/A) Muhammad Said(N/A) Ibrahim Abbas(N/A) Faten al-Sheikh Khaled(N/A) Ibrahim Ali Ibrahim(N/A) Mahmoud Arwani(N/A) Younes al-Saleh(N/A) Fadi Ayyash(N/A) Bahjat Assad(N/A) Bashar al-Halabiyah(N/A) Ahmad al-Khattab(N/A) Mayad Yaqub(N/A) rowspan="3" Khaled Muhammad(Ind.)2003 rowspan="2" Nadim Maryam(Ba'ath) Sameer Qandaji(N/A) rowspan="2" Kulthoum Wardeh(Ba'ath) Ahmad al-Shami(N/A) Abd al-Hadi Abd al-Karim(N/A) Seifo Ahmad(N/A) rowspan="2" Abd al-Karim al-Ismail(Ind.) Hashem al-Zaeem(N/A) rowspan="2" Jihad Murad(Ba'ath) Hussein Farzat(ASM) Younes Nassif(N/A) Walid Fares(N/A) Faisal Kulthoum(N/A) Mona Salameh(N/A) rowspan="2" Ibrahim al-Asmar(Ind.) Muhammad al-Hamido(N/A)2007 Sahar al-Hassoun(Ba'ath) Matanyous Issa(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Bilal Deeb(Ba'ath) Nouri al-Hamoud al-Hassan al-Khalil(SUP) Akram Hour(NCP) Abd al-Aziz al-Hassan(Ba'ath) Ibrahim al-Khalil(Ind.) Hashem Isbar(Ind.) Maan Ali(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Bashar Junaid(Ba'ath) Muhammad Said Tabash(Ba'ath) Joseph al-Maghout(Ba'ath) Ghazi al-Khattab(SUP) Ali al-Amouri(Ind.) Fouad al-Shalli(Ind.)2012 rowspan="3" Ali al-Sheikh Haidar(SSNP) rowspan="3" Nawras Mirza(SSNP) rowspan="6" Abd al-Rahman Azkahi(ASUP) rowspan="3" Hamed Ibrahim(Ba'ath) Nizar Musa(Ba'ath) rowspan="7" Maher Qawarma(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Muhammad al-Ghada(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Basem Ibrahim(Ind.) rowspan="3" Abd al-Karim al-Sabsabi(Until 2016: Ind.From 2016: Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Ali Rustum(Ind.) rowspan="3" Ghada Ibrahim(Until 2016: Ind.From 2016: Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Yasser al-Bakir(Ind.) rowspan="3" Akram Khalil(Ba'ath) rowspan="7" Ayman Malandi(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Waris al-Younis(Ba'ath) rowspan="6" Salam Sanqar(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Mohsen Ghazi(Ba'ath) rowspan="5" Mahmoud Jokhdar(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Muhammad Wael Ajneid(NCP) rowspan="3" Akram Hawash(Ind.) 2012 rowspan="5" Fadel Warda(Ba'ath) 2014 rowspan="2" Khader al-Saleh(Ba'ath)2016 rowspan="2" Hamed Hassan(Ba'ath) rowspan="3" Hussein Abbas(Ba'ath) rowspan="4" Abd al-Karim al-Ismail(Ind.) rowspan="2" Muhammad Alloush Jughaili(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Mahmoud al-Abd al-Salam(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Badee al-Hussein(Ind.) rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Jamal Youssef(Ind.) rowspan="3" rowspan="2" Mazen Azzouz(SSNP) rowspan="2" Abd al-Karim al-Bakir(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Maher Labad(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Muhammad al-Aji(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Dawlat al-Murshid(Ind.) rowspan="2" Waddah Murad(Ind.) 2018 rowspan="2" Basim al-Naameh(Ba'ath)2020 rowspan="2" Muhammad Sharabi(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Mustafa Khalil(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Mustafa al-Mustafa(Ba'ath) Mohsen Ghazi(Ba'ath) Fayez al-Ahmad(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Orouba Mahfoud(Ind.) Muhammad Sharif Abd al-Karim(Ind.) rowspan="2" Issam Sabbahi(Ba'ath) Yaghi Ali(Ba'ath) rowspan="2" Issa Wassouf(Ba'ath) Sariyah Qassem(ADUP) Abd al-Kafi Aqdeh(Ind.) Asaad Halloum(Ind.)2024 Ikhlas Farran(Ba'ath) Hammam Dibyat(Ba'ath) Yahya al-Asfar(ADUP) Ali Abboud(Ba'ath) Fadi al-Abbas(Ba'ath) Saeed al-Awadh(Ba'ath) Ali al-Amouri(Ind.) Ghazwan al-Salmoni(Ba'ath) Ali Barakat(Ba'ath) Hassan al-Qassem(Ba'ath) Abdul-Aziz Othman(NCP) Yousef al-Asfar(Ind.) Mahdi al-Ali(Ind.)
References