The political subgroup of the Contact Group on Ukraine has begun talks in Minsk, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said on Oct. 12.
“The working group on political aspects of the resolution in east Ukraine is meeting in Minsk behind closed doors,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Twitter.
The participants of the political subgroup are discussing the conditions of the Ukrainian law on local elections in the Donbas, a source in the subgroup told Interfax.
“Two main issues, including the conditions of the law on local elections in some districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as well as the enactment of the law on the special status of these districts, are being discussed,” the source said.
He did not rule out that the work of the subgroup might result in an agreement on the simultaneous consideration in Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada of the law on local elections and the introduction of amendments to the law on the special status of the Donbas, which will allow it to be brought into effect.
Meanwhile, representatives of the self-proclaimed Donbas republics have made several proposals without which, in their opinion, the law on local elections cannot be endorsed.
“According to these proposals, the law should envision the majority election system, the residence requirement for candidates, it is not important whether it will be two, three years, what is most important is that a candidate did not leave the oblast after the beginning of the conflict,” the source said.
Meanwhile, several questions may cause serious debates, he said.
“There are several issues for discussion, including the formation of election committees. If Ukrainian legislation envisages the formation of election committees from above, then in the situation in which the Donbas happened to be it is almost impossible to put it into practice.
“Representatives of some districts suggest forming election committees from the bottom through meetings of citizens and labor staffs. It is also proposed to introduce a form of participation in Ukrainian media coverage of elections in order to avoid provocations.”
