This followed the communal elections that were held on 22 September and was to be followed by a federal parliamentary election of the Syrian Democratic Council, the region's highest governing body, initially scheduled for January 2018, but was later postponed.

[2] The election was chiefly organized by the High Electoral Commission (Arabic: المفوضية العليا للانتخابات; Kurdish: Komseriya Bilind Ya Hilbijartinan; Classical Syriac: ܦܩܝܕܳܝܘܬ݂ܐ ܥܠܝܬܐ ܕܓܘܒܳܝ̈ܐ) of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

This was seen by observers as an indication of an improvement of the previously poor relations between the DFNS and the KRG.

[7] There were two main electoral lists competing in the election, the Democratic Nation List (Arabic: قائمة الأمة الديمقراطية; Kurdish: Lîsta Netewa Demokratîk; Classical Syriac: ܩܝܡܬܐ ܕܐܘܡܬܐ ܕܝܡܩܪܛܝܬܐ), which consists of 18 parties, and the Kurdish National Alliance in Syria (Arabic: التحالف الوطني الكردي في سوريا; Kurdish: Hevbendiya Niştimanî a Kurdî li Sûriyê), which consists of four.

The Syrian Reform Movement (TCKS) was originally a fifth member of the alliance that split from the Kurdish National Council party of the same name.