MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti), Ekaterina Blinova — Donetsk and Luhansk are carrying out final preparations for the elections of regional leaders and legislative bodies.
The self-proclaimed republics have passed the laws legitimizing the election procedures, which were developed in accordance with international standards and democratic norms, Novorossiya Press Center, the republics' media source, reports.
According to the election laws, the leadership candidates must be residents of the Donetsk, or Luhansk regions for a minimum of ten years, and older than 30. To be qualified, participants should gather at least one thousand voters' signatures. Candidates running for the regional parliaments must be older than 21 and residents of DPR or LPR for at least five years. Both regional leaders and legislative body representatives will be elected for four-year terms. The electoral threshold has been set at 5 percent. The law-making body of the DPR (Donetsk People's Republic) consists of one hundred seats, while the LPR's (Luhansk People's Republic) has 50 parliamentary seats.
According to Novorossiya Press Center, two main political camps have been formed in the eastern Ukraine, dubbed the "party of peace" – represented by the DPR's prime minister Alexander Zakharchenko and the LPR's prime minister Igor Plotnitskiy – and the "party of war," led by Pavel Gubarev, Igor Strelkov, Alexei Mozgovoi, the republics' militia leaders.
Three potential candidates to assume the post of head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic are Alexander Zakharchenko, the current prime minister, parliamentarian Yury Sivokonenko and Alexander Kofman, deputy chairman of the Novorossiya Federal State regional parliament, the DPR's Central Election Commission (CEC) reports. "Free Donbass," including Pavel Gubarev's "Novorossiya" movement, and Zakharchenko-led "Donetsk Republic" are the political parties expected to gain seats in the new parliament.
According to Alexander Zakharchenko, the forthcoming elections are aimed at establishing a legitimate state based on principles of justice. The elections will become an important milestone in the history of the republic, legitimizing the new parliament and the leadership of the country, noted Zakharchenko, as cited by the DNR Today local media source.
Meanwhile four candidates have been registered to take part in the leadership election in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic: Igor Plotnitskiy, the current prime minister of the republic, Oleg Akimov, the trade unions leader, Larisa Ayrapetyan, the LPR's public health minister, and Viktor Penner, a businessman. LPR's CEC has registered three political parties, namely the "People's Union," the "Luhansk Economic Union" and the "Peace to Luhansk Region", which will fight for parliamentary seats on November 2.
LPR's prime minister Igor Plotnitskiy believes that the elections will be legitimate and fair, RIA Novosti reports. However, he and his counterparts in the Donetsk region express deep concerns regarding Ukraine's hostile approach to the republics' democratic initiative. Kiev, the EU and the United States have already denounced the elections as illegitimate and contradicting the Minsk agreements.
According to the LPR's CEC statement, published on the republic’s official site, 28 international observers from Russia, Israel, Czech Republic, Germany, US, Abkhazia, Ossetia and other countries have already arrived in the self-proclaimed state. About 51 independent international observers will take part in the DPR's elections, Roman Lyagin, head of the CEC of Donetsk told journalists during a conference held on October 31, the DNR Today reports.
