DONETSK, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - The elections in Ukraine cannot be considered as free elections, they are a 'farce', Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin told RIA Novosti Sunday.
"The elections were not free, it's a farce. People are intimidated, the east of Ukraine is not represented. There are armed men everywhere across the country ," Purgin said.
"We do not care for the elections results, we are not interested in them. We have our own elections that will make the DPR authorities legitimate," he added.
However, Purgin now expects that "the intensity of militaristic hysteria" will reduce in Kiev. "Usually, hysteria reduces after the elections," he said.
Purgin also expressed doubts about the ability of the new Ukrainian parliament to find a way out of the situation in the country.
"Ukraine is in a deep crisis, I doubt that the new Parliament will find a way out of it. They have halted the chemical industry, they have lost the East. Europe is paying for the Ukrainian gas... A counter-elite comes to power, which is not interested in solving the crisis."
Snap parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on Sunday. Ukrainians went to the polls to vote in 423 members of parliament — 225 of them from party lists and 198 in single-candidate constituencies. The electoral threshold has been set at five percent.
The elections were held against the background of a serious political and economic crisis in the country. Despite the ceasefire agreement on September 5 between between government troops and independence supporters of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics, both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce.
