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Local elections to take place in Kiev-controlled territory of Donbas region — official

The Central Electoral Commission will carefully study the security situation in each separate administrative-territorial unit

© Zurab Javakhadze/TASS

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KIEV, August 3 /TASS/. Local elections should take place in the government-controlled territory of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions on October 25, Mikhail Okhendovsky, the head of Ukraine’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC), said in an interview with the Glavkom Internet publication on Monday.

"I think that we should hold regular elections in these territories this year. After all, we managed to hold the presidential elections and snap elections of people’s deputies in those areas in 2014," he said adding that discrimination of citizens because of their place of residence was banned under the constitution. Okhendovsky also noted that it was absolutely impossible to restrict the rights of territorial communities to local self-government without weighty reasons.

At the same time, he said that the Central Electoral Commission would carefully study the security situation in each separate administrative-territorial unit and consult respective military and civilian administrations before making the final decision.

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