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LPR envoy says Kiev should reform election law for Donbas to adjust it to OSCE standards

The envoy of the self-proclaimed Luhansk republic to the Minsk negotiations called to end the military operation in donbas and lift the economic blockade off the region

© TASS/Stanislav Grigoriev

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. Kiev should reform its election legislation for Donbas to adjust it to the OSCE standards, the envoy of the self-proclaimed Luhansk republic to the Minsk negotiations, Vladislav Deinego, has told a news conference.

"The OSCE standards envisage a rather calm situation in the territories where elections are to be held, and not just a ceasefire. It is worth recalling the economic blockade, which is creating the major hindrance to normal life in the territory of the Luhansk and Donetsk republics. The point at issue is termination of the military operation and the lifting of the economic blockade," the LuganskInformCentre news agency quotes Deinego as saying.

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"At the legislative level Ukraine should take a number of documents that neutralize the factors Ukraine and its current rulers have introduced artificially to create unacceptable conditions not only for people living here, but for holding elections, too," Deinego said.

"If Ukraine consciously agreed to implement the package of measures - and there are just no other options - it is obliged to do so proceeding from the commitments assumed within the framework of the Normandy format and the Minsk format. If they have agreed to implement the package of measures in earnest, they are to create conditions that match the OSCE standards for holding the elections," Deinego said.

The Luhansk and Donetsk republics on October 6 issued a statement saying that the leaders of the Normandy Quartet had taken into account their proposals for postponing one of the election stages in Donbass till 2016. Having studied the recommendations from the Minsk Accords’ guarantor states the republics agreed to postpone the elections, originally scheduled on October 18 and November 1, till next year.

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Ukraine crisis OSCE

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