Donetsk Authorities Will Not Hinder Voting In Election To Ukraine's Parliament - Official

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th July, 2019) The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) will not prevent the region's residents from voting in the upcoming elections to the Ukrainian parliament on Sunday, the republic's militia deputy head, Eduard Basurin, said on Friday.

"This is nonsense. Let me recall that when there were presidential elections, those who wanted to go to the main [Kiev-controlled] territory of Ukraine, they left and voted. If someone wants to vote for lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada, then please. This is the right of citizens, they choose what they want to do and that is their right," Basurin said when asked to comment on reports that DPR authorities were allegedly going to block departure from the republic on the election day.

The parliamentary election in Ukraine, which were not supposed to be held until October, is now scheduled for July 21, since Zelesnkyy dissolved the legislature in late May. It this election, half of the parliament's 450 members will be elected from party lists, while the remaining lawmakers will be elected in single-mandate Constituencies.

Only parties are allowed to participate in elections and the threshold will be 5 percent.

Kiev still does not allow representatives from Russia to monitor the election. Moreover, observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will not monitor the vote for the first time, since Kiev has withdrawn the invitation.

In addition, voting is not conducted in Russia and in Donbas, which is not controlled by Kiev. Russian Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Alexander Lukashevich noted that this would prevent some 7-10 million Ukrainian citizens from voting.

Donbas has been embroiled in an armed conflict with Kiev since 2014. The people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk have refused to recognize the Ukrainian authorities that came to power that year as a result of what Donbas residents considered to be a coup.