DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The streets of Damascus barely showed sign Saturday a parliamentary election was set to take place the next day.

There were no candidate posters on the main streets and squares, no rallies, or public debates. In the days leading up to the polling, some residents of the Syrian capital had no idea a vote was hours away, the first since Islamic insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive in December.

“I didn’t know — now by chance I found out that there are elections of the People’s Assembly,” said Elias al-Qudsi, a shopkeeper in Damascus’ old city, after being asked for his views about the upcoming election. “But I don’t know if we are supposed to vote or who is voting.”

His neighborhood, known as the Jewish Quarter, although nearly all

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