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Donetsk mayor proposes to put off referendum on region’s status to May 25

KIEV, April 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Mayor of Ukraine’s much-troubled eastern city of Donetsk, Alexander Lukyanchenko, has come up with a proposal to put off a referendum on the status of the region from May 11 to May 25 and to combine it with the presidential election.

He said there would be no grounds for considering the plebiscite legitimate otherwise as the authorities in Kiev had not adopted the law on local referendums yet.

Lukyanchenko said however that legislative duplicities could be avoided if the referendum were synchronized with the presidential election.

“It would then be held under the supervision of numerous international organizations and anyone would scarcely question its legitimacy then,” he said. “In addition, we could avoid unnecessary excessive costs then.”

“To hold the referendum, a total of 426 polling stations should be set up just the same number of electoral commissions, Lukyanchenko said.

Earlier, he proposed to hold an all-Ukraine voting on a new Constitution simultaneously with the election of the president.

Protesters in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions demand that local referendums be held May 11.