Kurdish-led administration in Syria sets election dates
 

BEIRUT: The Kurdish-led administration in **rthern Syria has set dates for local council and regional assembly elections, an official said on Saturday, in an apparent move to consolidate its growing auto**my.

Kurdish groups and their allies control swathes of **rthern Syria in areas held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of militias spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG.

But formal self-government by the Kurds there alarms Turkey, which regards the YPG and the dominant Syrian Kurdish political party as extensions of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK which has waged a three-decade insurgency against Ankara.

Elections will be held in late summer for bodies running local communities, in **vember for bodies running larger areas and next January for the region as a whole, the Kurdish official said via a social networking feed.

The dates and rules for conducting the vote were agreed by a council set up in December to form governing institutions and prepare for elections.

The dominant Kurdish groups in **rthern Syria have carved out self-governing regions since early in the civil war, but they say they are **t seeking independence from Damascus.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has tolerated Kurdish control over parts of the country but says he opposes the decentralised federal system they espouse and has described their ruling councils as "temporary structures". —Reuters

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