The Central Election Commission has reported that it is impossible to prepare and hold the first local elections in 18 separate territorial communities of Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Oct. 31.
“Donetsk and Luhansk regional state administrations – civil-military administrations established the impossibility of ensuring proper security of citizens and avoiding a terrorist threat during the organization and holding of the first local elections on Oct. 31, 2021 in certain territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The list of such communities includes ten village, settlement, urban territorial communities of Bakhmutsky, Volnovakhsky, Mariupolsky and Pokrovsky districts of Donetsk region and eight – in Severodonetsky and Schastiynsky districts of Luhansk region,” the CEC website said on Aug. 20.
The department reports that the regional administration came to the corresponding conclusion, “taking into account the conclusions of the command of the JFO, the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, based on the results of a working meeting of all relevant departments on the conduct of local elections, in connection with the ongoing armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine”.
In particular, the responses received by the Commission, report about the ongoing shelling from Russia-led forces along the entire disengagement line and provocations, which “cannot guarantee 100% security for residents during the elections.”
In addition, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission recorded heavy weapons deployed in violation of the withdrawal lines stipulated by the Minsk agreements. Also, according to the regional administrations, since the beginning of the year, targeted shelling of settlements along the entire disengagement line has been recorded, and Russian mercenaries are actively using remote mining and set fire to dead wood near the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and settlements.
The CEC said that it addressed the Donetsk and Luhansk regional administrations with similar appeals on the eve of local elections in October 2020 and March 2021.
The CEC also informs that it has applied to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning for a legislative regulation of the issue of the impossibility of holding elections if it is established that it is impossible to ensure their preparation, as well as for determining the criteria for making such a decision.
“The Commission notes that the issue of holding the first local elections in these territories is under its control and in case of receiving positive conclusions from the competent authorities, in particular, the security situation, it will immediately take all necessary measures to appoint and subsequently organize the preparation and conduct of elections,” the message said.
