Ukrainian Authorities Ready to Hold Local Elections near Contact Line in Donbas

The Central Election Commission of Ukraine appealed to the Donetsk and Luhansk regional civil-military administrations with a request to provide conclusions on the possibility of holding the first local elections in certain territorial communities of these regions on 31 October 2021, the press service of the CEC Secretariat has reported.

“The Commission can decide on the possibility or impossibility of holding elections on the basis of relevant conclusions and recommendations of regional civil-military administrations and law enforcement agencies, as it was on the eve of local elections in October 2020 and March 2021,” the report reads.

In the summer of 2020, the CEC established the impossibility of holding the first local elections on 25 October 2020 in 10 territorial communities of the Donetsk region and eight communities of the Luhansk region.

The main reason for the cancellation of the elections was that it was impossible to ensure the safety of voters and participants in the election process in certain territorial communities. The Joint Forces Operation is underway in this territory in order to ensure national security and defence, and repel and deter the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.

In particular, local elections were not held in the actual regional centre of the Luhansk region, Severodonetsk, as well as in Lysychansk, Volnovakha, Avdiivka, Vuhledar, Toretsk, Stanytsia Luhanska, Popasna, and Shchastia. The decision caused a stir in communities where voting took place in all previous elections in 2014-2019.

Bohdan Marusyak