MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) head Vladimir Churov on Wednesday said representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics have not asked his committee to monitor elections there due in early November.
Churov told the Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei radio station that the CEC will monitor elections in the republics remotely.
The Central Election commissions of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) said earlier in October that elections of their heads and parliamentarians will be held as planned on November 2 despite plans to postpone them.
In line with the law “On elections of the head of the DPR”, a citizen of the DPR at least 30 years old, who has permanently resided in the republic for at least 10 years and has collected 1,000 signatures in his support can be elected the DPR head. DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko is one of the candidates.
In line with the law “On elections of deputies to the DPR People’s Council”, the electoral threshold in parliamentary elections is set at 5% The parliament will have 100 lawmakers elected in line with the proportional system.
The right to nominate candidate lists is given to public organizations and associations; their registration started October 3. The candidate should be older than 21 and has to live for five years on the republic’s territory prior to the elections. The DPR head and deputies are elected for four years.
In line with the legislation of the LPR, a citizen of the LPR at least 30 years old, who has permanently resided in the republic for at least 10 years, can be elected the LPR head. The first elections of the LPR head are appointed by the LPR Supreme Council. Registration of candidates for LPR head started October 5.
In line with the law on elections to the People’s Council, its 50 deputies are elected for four years. Republican lists of candidates may be nominated by public organizations (movements).
Fierce clashes between troops loyal to Kiev and local militias in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics, have killed over 3,700 people, brought massive destruction and forced hundreds of thousands to flee Ukraine’s embattled southeast.
The parties to the Ukrainian conflict - Kiev and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics in Ukraine’s east - agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in the east of Ukraine.
The ceasefire took effect the same day but has reportedly occasionally been violated.
Ukraine’s parliament on September 16 granted a special self-rule status to certain districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions for three years. Elections to local self-government bodies were set for December 7.
On September 20 in Minsk, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum outlining the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5.
The document contains nine points, including in particular a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibers of over 100 millimeters to a distance of 15 kilometers from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions.
Churov also said the Russian CEC will not send observers to monitor early elections to Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, due October 26, but will monitor them remotely.