‘Atmosphere of terror’ dominates election day in Donetsk

Initial estimates of the Central Electoral Commission in the two rebel regions of eastern Ukraine on the number of voters who could be deprived of exercising their right in the presidential elections in Donetsk and Lugansk – two million – may fall short to judge by the and bolted closure of polling stations, many guarded by rebel militia, and the closure of more than half of local election committees. Both provinces gather a census of five million voters, representing around 10 % of the country. The centers are mostly closed except one in Mariupol and somewhere in the west of the province which is controlled by the Army.

The pro-Russian separatist threats have forced the abandonment in the past 48 hours many of these teams are responsible for the arrangement of the tables and the distribution of the material (ballot boxes, ballots, lists), and have been seriously substantiated in the kidnapping of committee chief 43rd Donetsk, Ruslan Kudryavcev, which is still being held. Given the risks, the Central Electoral Commission decided on Friday afternoon concentrate all committees Donetsk – five in total, 22 of the region – in facilities at the city’s international airport. A total of 34 local committees meet Donetsk and Lugansk, 20 are blocked by the rebels, according to the latest data available. A polling has come a very small number of ballots.

The separatists have machine guns installed near some offices and Artiomovsk, and urged the people not to leave home on Sunday or use public transport to prevent the vote. This ” atmosphere of terror ” was defined as Saturday by sources of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Donetsk, deprive the region including international observers. Del thousand experts that this organization has in Ukraine, ” none will be alien in the city of Donetsk and only some in the western regions of the province,” an area theoretically under Army control. In the past 48 hours, the fighting between the forces of Kiev and the pro-Russian militias have claimed at least twenty dead.

Other international groups such as the Election Observation Mission of Canada, under the Government, and the U.S. Committee for Open Democracy, yes work in Donetsk. ” Here we do not talk to ensure transparency and avoid irregularities in the vote or any kind of fraud; speak directly of terrified people for trying to organize an election or allow their citizens to exercise their right to vote. That’s the biggest electoral violation here, terror, “explains Marko Suprun, the Committee for Open Democracy.

After virtually no electoral campaign based on the bland street – electoral propaganda posters and only some candidates, none of Petro Poroshenko or Yulia Tymoshenko, who lead opinion polls, voting, only two candidates appear to have some potential success in the rebel regions, Sergei Tigipko, an independent who once participated in the government of former President Viktor Yanukovych, and the Communist Piotr Simonenko. Technical difficulties and risks aside, the abstention in the Donbas coal basin grouping Donetsk and Lugansk, can exceed 51 %, according to polls.

To finish warm up the crowd, representatives of the independent republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have constituted Saturday entity Novorrosia (New Russia), at a ceremony held at a hotel in Donetsk which was attended by representatives from other provinces in southeastern Ukraine (Odesa, Kherson, Nikolayev, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaparozhie). Signing as Novorrosia unification took place behind closed doors, with the mere presence of the news channel Russia -24. Novorrosia concept has recently been claimed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Posted by Khalil Khan on May 26 2014. Filed under Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.