HNC, UN’s de Mistura Discuss Syrian Electoral Process – Opposition Delegation

The UN envoy for Syria and High Negotiations Committee discussed Wednesday Syria’s electoral process.

GENEVA (Sputnik) — Syria’s electoral process was in the spotlight at Wednesday’s talks between UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura and the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), the lead delegate of the Syrian opposition's group said.

"We focused on political transition. In specific, we discussed today electoral process and how the transitional governing body will work," Nasr Hariri told reporters after meeting with de Mistura.

He added the discussion was specifically about "how to facilitate transparent elections under the UN supervision."

This was the first round of talks devoted to future elections in Syria, with Hariri stressing one session was "not enough." "We will have further discussions on this topic," he promised.

Hariri is in Geneva for a series of talks with stakeholders of the Syrian peace process. Earlier in the day, he met with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov at the the UN Office.

Elections are just one of the four main "baskets" of issues that warring parties have agreed to discuss, others being political transition, constitution, and counterterrorism. De Mistura earlier handed to all delegations a paper with specific that needed to be addressed on every basket.