Donetsk, Lugansk to hold primaries Sunday

Primary election will be held in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) for the first time on Sunday.

After the election, lists of candidates for local government positions will be formed in accordance with the Minsk Agreements, Russian news agency TASS reported.

DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko announced primaries back in May, followed by LPR head Igor Plotnitsky.

The DPR head repeatedly stated that since the Minsk Agreements had been reached, Kiev has not yet managed to coordinate the text of the law on election in Donbass with representatives of DPR and LPR. 

Consequently, the Verkhovna Rada has not adopted the law.

As a result, DPR and LPR had to postpone local election several times while it was initially planned to be held at the end of 2015. The decision to hold primaries was made in the conditions of persisting vagueness of joint work with Kiev on developing a law on local election in Donbass.

Zakharchenko said primaries will help "on the one hand, to resolve our own tasks on building a state system, and on the other hand, to show that complaints made by the Ukrainian side are in fact worthless."

Source: MENA