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DPR edits law on elections

One of the new provisions bans directly participation of the Ukrainian media in the election process in DPR
Legislators of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (archive) TASS/Mikhail Pochuev
Legislators of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (archive)
© TASS/Mikhail Pochuev

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Legislators of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) adopted amendments to the law on local elections, the Donetsk News Agency reported on Friday.

"The document’s purpose is to implement the Complex of Measures to observe the Minsk agreements of February 12, 2015 and the Minsk protocol of September 5, 2014 on organization of local elections in relation to a special status of Donbas," the document’s explanatory note reads.

One of the new provisions bans directly participation of the Ukrainian media in the election process in DPR.

"Mass media, involved… in fomenting of civil strife and the spread of calls for violence or deliberately false information about the situation in the Donetsk People’s Republic, are not allowed to events in the election process," the document reads.

"Organization of the elections will be based on election standards of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE)," it reads.

Earlier, head of DPR Alexander Zakharchenko said the elections in the republic will be organized on October 18, but on Friday he said the exact date will be announced within a week.

"Within a week, we shall meet with representatives of LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic) to offer an exact date for local elections in DPR," he said. "We shall see whether the elections will be on the 18th or on the date of elections in LPR (due in LPR on November 1 — TASS)."

On August 6, President Poroshenko signed a law on local elections, which reads the elections are due on October 25, though elections in districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are not controlled by Kiev, will not be organized. DPR and LPR said the law contradicts with the Minsk agreements and appointed dates of the local elections: October 18 in DPR and November 1 in LPR. President Poroshenko said then the elections of the kind may have "devastating consequences for the process of de-escalation in Donbas."

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015, signed a 13-point Complex of Measures to fulfill the September 2014 Minsk agreements.

The Complex of Measures (Minsk-2), earlier agreed in the Belarusian capital with leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias starting from February 15.

Based on September’s stillborn Minsk peace protocol, the deal also laid out a road map for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.