Separatists refuse to hold elections initiated by Kyiv; Ukraine not to legalise DPR, LPR
There will be no legalisation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has stated today.
“No one will allow the so-called DPR and LPR to be legalised, and this is my political position,” the PM told the government on Wednesday, commenting on the bill regarding a special status for parts of the two regions passed on Tuesday.
In turn, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) administration is not ready to allow Ukrainian entities to arrange and hold an early local election in Donbas on Dec. 7, DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko told news agency Interfax on Wednesday.
They ‘will decide ourselves’ when and what kind of elections they will have. “We will not have any elections organised by Ukraine,” Mr Zakharchenko said. Holding elections in the regions was provided in the law on special status of some districts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Mr Zakharchenko also refused to take part in the another tound of negotiations of the trilateral group (Ukraine-Russia-OSCE) on the Ukrainian conflict in Minsk.
Moreover, voters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) will not take part in October 26 elections to choose deputies for Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada in Kiev, ITAR-TASS quotes DPR ‘deputy prime minister’ Andrei Purgin.
“We will ignore the elections,” Mr Purgin said. “We will hold elections in the republic by the end of the year,” he noted. The date has not yet been decided as there was no law governing elections across the territory, Mr Purgin said.
