Updated 6:18 p.m. Moscow
DONETSK, September 24 (RIA Novosti) – The parliament of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the Supreme Council, scheduled legislative elections for November 2 at its session on Wednesday.
DPR First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin said 100 lawmakers are expected to be elected.
He said that another self-proclaimed Ukrainian republic, the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), is likely to elect its legislature on the same date.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that local elections in Donetsk and Luhansk republics should take place on November 9. He said that having local elections was a step toward preventing the regions becoming a "frozen conflict."
Ukrainian authorities and independence supporters of the eastern regions aligned positions on a ceasefire and a number of issues concerning the status of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on September 5 at a Contact Group meeting in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, as outlined in the Minsk Protocol.
Following the protocol, Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved a law granting special status to parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on September 16. The protocol also suggests that the law should allow early elections of the heads of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics.
