You're reading: Political subgroup fails to agree on Donbas elections in Minsk

The political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group for Ukraine discussed modalities of the Donbas election process on Jan. 19, but the sides agreed to differ, Ukrainian representative to the political subgroup Roman Bezsmertny has said.

“Three meetings have been held, and all of them were dedicated to election modalities, modalities of the election process. We discussed several elements, and centered on two keynote issues: the administering, i.e. the involvement of the Central Elections Commission, and the essence of powers of district elections commissions and territorial elections commissions. As [it] regards the second issue, we were working on possible functions and involvement of political parties. Election process security was discussed as the third issue,” Bezsmertny said on the phone in a program aired by the 112 Ukraine channel on Jan. 19.

All of these issues can come true, in case of the implementation of the first three provisions of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements – the arms pullback, the withdrawal of foreign armed units and demilitarization, he said.

“The things we have been discussing can take effect only after these initial provisions are implemented. This means we are speaking about the future, about things to take effect if the first, second and third provisions are implemented in the beginning,” Bezsmertny said.

The political subgroup held its negotiations in the presence of OSCE Envoy Martin Sajdik, who chairs meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group, he said.

“The debates were rather heated; the debates were the way they had been in the past 18 months. Unfortunately, the sides agreed to disagree,” the Ukrainian representative to the political subgroup said.

The Trilateral Contact Group for Donbas is planned to meet in Minsk on Wednesday.