Ukraine’s ‘Imperfect’ Election Process Unacceptable for Donbass – Envoy
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – An automatic transfer of Kyiv’s imperfect election processes to the eastern regions of the country is unacceptable, Russia’s permanent envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe said Monday.
In October, Ukraine held local elections, which formally finished in late November. Before the elections started, the country’s breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk agreed to postpone their local elections until 2016. Before elections in those regions can take place, Ukrainian authorities must fulfill all Minsk agreements obligations.
“It is unacceptable to speak of transferring the imperfect legislation on the election process to Donbass, as is emphasized by the Ukrainian negotiators in the Contact Group. Moreover, there is a concrete goal that must be solved in the mutual actions between Kyiv, Donetsk, and Lugansk within the Complex of Measures, and we’re talking about a special law on local elections,” Alexander Lukashevich said during a live video uplink conference between Moscow and Vienna.
The Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation in the country’s eastern regions since April 2014.
In February, Kyiv and the southeastern independence supporters signed a deal on Ukrainian reconciliation in Minsk, including a ceasefire and the withdrawal of weapons from the line of contact.
Under the deal, constitutional reforms aimed at decentralizing power in Ukraine and the initiation of local elections in Donbass must be concluded before the end of 2015.