Leaders in Donetsk, Luhansk to organise their polls----Purgin
Legitimate representatives of self-proclaimed Donetsk and
Luhansk People’s Republics in east Ukraine will set their own date for local
elections, the parliamentary speaker of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic
said on Monday.
"Donbas [region of east Ukraine] voted for [Donetsk
People’s Republic head Alexander] Zakharchenko and [Luhansk People’s Republic
head Igor] Plotnisky — the deputies of the republics’ People's Councils. They
should decide where and how the elections here will take place," Andrey
Purgin told the Donetsk news agency, commenting on a statement by Sergey
Levochkin, a Ukrainian parliamentary deputy from the Opposition Bloc, reports
Tass.
Levochkin told Ukraine’s Inter television channel on Sunday
there could be only one mechanism of holding the elections. "It is the
Ukrainian law and Ukraine’s Central Election Commission which will be tasked to
organise these elections and register their results," he said.
Purgin cautioned against trying "to impose unilateral
decisions" on the two eastern republics, noting that peace agreements
reached in Minsk, Belarus, last month "envisage coordination of all
decisions and draft regulations related to Donbass with representatives of the
Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics".
The Opposition Bloc’s initiatives allegedly aimed at
implementing the Minsk agreements seemed "disturbing", Purgin added.
Elections in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, embattled by
months of conflict in the country's east, are among the provisions of the peace
deal struck on February 12 in Minsk after the Russian, Ukrainian, French, and
German leaders met.
Minsk agreements
The deal, announced after more than 16 hours of discussions
between Vladimir Putin, Petro Poroshenko, Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel,
also envisaged immediate and full bilateral ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy
weapons from the front line, prisoner release and agreement for international
observers to monitor the truce.
Among the terms of the deal were also a commitment to grant
wider self-rule to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and calls for talks on their
long-term status.
Earlier this month, Opposition Bloc deputies in Ukraine
urged the Verkhovna Rada parliament to pass a law granting special status to
the war-torn eastern regions, saying this should reflect proposals in the Minsk
settlement. On March 25, the Opposition Bloc said it had registered a package
of bills needed for the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. The
so-called peace package consisted of laws on "restoring the banking
system, amnesty for the participants of the conflict, social benefit payments
in Donbass and other provisions stipulated in the Minsk agreements," its
leader Yury Boyko said.
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