In a process that began last year and has been criticised as undemocratic, members of local committees across Syria have been casting ballots to elect members of the assembly, which will have a renewable 30-month mandate.

Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa is to appoint 70 representatives to the 210-member body. Local committees -- appointed by the electoral commission, which was itself also appointed by Sharaa -- have been selecting the other two-thirds.

State news agency SANA said Sunday's ballot covered seven representatives for parts of Hasakeh province, while another two seats in the region were appointed by acclamation after only two people stood.

A ballot was also being held for two seats in Kurdish-majority Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, in Aleppo province.

In January, Damascus and the Kurds, who during Syria's civil war carved out a semi-autonomous administration covering swathes of the country's northeast, agreed to integrate Kurdish civilian and military institutions into the state.

Several Kurdish parties criticised Sunday's ballot, saying in a statement that the mechanism for forming the legislature was "nothing but an appointment process" and does not reflect the "free Kurdish will".

They also criticised the fact that only four of the assembly's 210 seats have been allocated for Kurds and called for this to increase to better reflect the Kurdish population.

There are around two million Kurds in Syria, most of them in the northeast.

In October last year, Syria's electoral commission announced the names of 119 members of the new assembly, out of the 140 members to be chosen through the ballot process.

At that time, seats remained vacant for parts of then Kurdish-held Raqa and Hasakeh provinces in the north and northeast, and Druze-majority Sweida province in the south, due to "security" reasons.

After Sunday's ballot, only Sweida -- which is to have three seats -- will remain outside the process.

It follows sectarian violence in the province in July last year and ongoing tensions between Damascus and local Druze leaders, foremost among them Hikmat al-Hijri, considered the Druze figure most hostile to Damascus.

Last week, Hijri reiterated demands for an autonomous administration in Sweida and to the "right to self-determination".

"We are the ones who best know how to manage our affairs and administer our region," he said.