New Delhi, Oct. 6 -- No voters. Seventy appointments. A chamber born under supervision.

Damascus. Syria elections 2025 arrived without a public ballot. In governorate halls, roughly six thousand vetted electors filed past plastic seals and red wax, marked their choices and left the rest to arithmetic and decree. Two thirds of the 210-seat People's Assembly would come from electoral colleges. The remaining third would be named by the interim presidency. By nightfall, the question hanging over Syria was not who won, but who was allowed to choose.

The scene, captured in quiet frames from provincial stations and a handful of capital sites, was deliberately modest. It was also historic. This was the first parliamentary contest since the oust...