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International observers to be present at polling stations in Donetsk, Luhansk regions

Earlier, during preparations for the voting, representatives of the OSCE observation mission and the embassies’ staff attended constituency election commissions and polling stations

© TASS/Mikhail Pochuev

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KIEV, October 23. /TASS/. International observers will be present at polling stations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the day of parliamentary elections, the Central Election Commission (CEC) staff told TASS on Thursday.

However, the CEC staff and representatives of international organizations cannot say how much observers will stay there.

The CEC secretary’s deputy head, Sergey Dubovik, said, “Observers will be at polling stations in the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.”

“Earlier, during preparations for the voting, representatives of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) observation mission and the embassies’ staff attended constituency election commissions and polling stations,” Dubovik said.

He said special notes in English and Russian with phone numbers were prepared for international observers to allow them to solve problems that may emerge. There are Russian citizens among observers. “Today I’m meeting with the Ukrainian World Congress members who arrived to monitor the elections. There are Russian citizens among them. They can be included in groups of observers from other international organizations,” Dubovik said.

Representatives of Kazakhstan and Belarus will also be among observers, he said.

Head of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) David Ennis said it was still difficult to say who and when would monitor the voting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

This problem will be solved by each mission of international organizations, he said.

The Canadian observer mission and the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) declined to specify how many observers they were ready to send to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions citing security concerns.

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