Voting process for town, district and canton councils that began at 08.00 this morning has ended.

Around 800,000 people are estimated to have cast their votes in 1303 polling stations in Cizîr, Euphrates and Efrîn regions of Northern Syria today. The vote counting is expected to be finalized within 24 hours.

Kurdish, Arab, Circassian, Syriac and Turkmen peoples as well as Êzidî, Christian, Alevi and other faith groups showed great interest in the elections, joining the long queues in front of polling stations.

The elections have been observed by delegations from Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Gorran (Change) Movement, Vote and Beyond (Oy ve Ötesi) and civil society organisations from Turkey.

Officials of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria also went to the ballots, with PYD Co-chair Şahoz Hesen casting his vote in Hesekê’s Salihiya neighborhood, and Democratic Federation of Northern Syria Constituent Assembly Co-chair Hediye Yusuf in Qamishlo.

The first part of the three-phase elections in the Northern Syrian Federation was on September 22 with the election of Commune Co-chairs. The second part with the election of town, district and canton councils has taken place today and the last phase, elections for the Northern Syrian People’s Congress (Kongra Gel) is expected to be held in January 2018.