You might think that Syria had entered a new era. Speaking to the United Nations’ General Assembly on September 24 — the first Syrian head of state to do so in six decades — interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa was widely hailed as a new leader addressing the country’s structural problems. Yet internally, the picture is much more contradictory.

October 5 saw the country’s first elections, following decades of dictatorship and fourteen years of war. Yet the process remained under the tight control of the new authorities, with political organizations banned and only individuals allowed to participate. The population was not involved either; only a few thousand were registered to vote, while the approximately sixteen million Syrians (plus six million living as a refugees abroad) were barely aware what was really happening.