Self-proclaimed Donetsk republic to elect head, parliament on November 2
DONETSK, September 24. /ITAR-TASS/. The Supreme Council of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has scheduled the elections of the head and parliament of the republic for November 2, an ITAR-TASS correspondent reported on Wednesday.
The decision was approved by the majority of the lawmakers.
Earlier on Wednesday, Donetsk legislators adopted a law in the first reading, under which any resident, no younger than 30 years, who has lived on the territory of the republic for at least 10 years, can be elected its head.
The candidates should collect at least 1,000 signatures in their support.
The leadership of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) announced on Tuesday that the elections of the republic’s head and parliament are also due on November 2.
In the interview with ITAR-TASS, the chairman of the LPR’s Supreme Council, Alexei Karyakin, said on Tuesday that “the elections will be held simultaneously with the Donetsk People’s Republic.”
The leaders of the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine have repeatedly said that they have no plans to conduct the elections to the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
“We will carry out our own vote,” the head of the LPR, Igor Plotnitsky, said on Tuesday. “Our own people will hold these polls. Ukraine will be our neighbor,” he added.
DPR’s First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin also said early elections to the Ukrainian parliament, scheduled for October 26, will not be held on the territory of the self-proclaimed republic.