The office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is considering two scenarios for holding elections in the territory of Donbass that is not controlled by Kiev: either together with local elections throughout the country in the autumn of 2020 or separately in spring and summer of the next year, the Ukrainian Pravda online publication reported on Thursday, citing the sources related to the Head of state.
The Donbass Contact Group agreed on a Steinmeier formula on Tuesday. It defines the mechanism for enacting the law on the special procedure for local self-government in certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions on a temporary basis on election day and on an ongoing basis – after the publication of the OSCE report on the election results.
“The president’s office is considering two scenarios for holding elections in the occupied territory of Donbass – together with regular local elections throughout Ukraine in October 2020 or early elections in the ORDLO (separate areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions – ed.) in spring and summer”, – the statement of the message says.
According to the publication, Zelensky’s surrounding is considering the possibility of holding synchronized regular local elections earlier than in the fall of 2020.
“But for this it is necessary to amend the constitution of Ukraine, which stipulates that the next election is held on” the last Sunday of October”, – the report says.
The publication also reports that two scenarios for the election “shared a monolithic team” of Zelensky. The head of the president’s office, Andrei Bogdan, is skeptical of the idea of amending the constitution. At the same time, his first deputy Sergey Trofimov, according to the publication, mutually with the relevant committee is considering two options for holding local elections.