al-Ghamar Arabs (lit. "Arabs of the Flood"), who were settled by the Syrian regime in the Hasakah Governorate in the 1960s and '70s on appropriated (mostly Kurdish-owned) land, were allowed to participate in the communal elections and subsequent regional elections to establish local services for them, but weren't allowed to participate in the third round in January 2018 to elect the Syrian Democratic Council. The cities of Manbij and Raqqa were excluded, as they had local councils independent from the Northern Syria Federation, and Raqqa was only fully captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces after the first local elections. Both men and women ran in the elections, with the SDC planning to have women hold 50% of positions.