UA
FR
DELocal elections are to take place in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas, but there are no conditions for calling them now. Accordingly, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has to adopt a special law on early elections in some districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
Oleksiy Reznikov, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, declared this. He also added that the measures bundle of the Minsk agreements implementation stipulates adoption of such a law.
“The Parliament of Ukraine must adopt the appropriate, separate law on early elections in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. So, according to this law, elections must and can be held there. The resolution (on calling local elections) regulates holding the elections in the controlled territory. These are completely different documents in their legal nature.” The Deputy Prime Minister said this after a meeting of the Committee on State Power Issues, which considered a letter from the Ukrainian delegation in the TCG head Leonid Kravchuk with a request to examine the compliance of the resolution on local elections in Ukraine and Minsk agreements.
Reznikov stressed that elections in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories might be held only after the withdrawal of foreign troops, illegal groups demilitarisation, and disarmament. “This will let the OSCE monitoring mission to come and certify that the elections will be held under Ukrainian legislation and Constitution, Copenhagen standards, with freedom of voting, movement, and political parties.”
According to the high-ranking official, no OSCE monitoring mission will visit the occupied Donbas now because foreign troops and their mercenaries continue to be there. So, the Ukrainian government is not able to guarantee the security of observers.
Bohdan Marusyak
