Ukraine not to hold local elections in ten regions due to martial law
A respective resolution was approved at a CEC meeting on Thursday, November 29, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"The Central Election Commission decides to draw the attention of subjects and other participants in the election process of local elections to be held in the Vinnytsia, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions, in which a state of martial war was declared, to strict compliance with Part 1 of Article 19 of the Law of Ukraine 'On the Legal Status of Martial Law' regarding the prohibition of elections," CEC Deputy Chairman Oleh Konopolsky said, announcing the provisions of the resolution.
According to the resolution, the issue of scheduling local elections in these ten regions will be resolved in line with a legally determined procedure after martial law is stopped or canceled.
CEC Head Tetiana Slipachuk specified that the ban applies to 45 first and 7 additional elections in newly formed merged territorial communities scheduled for December 23, as well as 9 interim local elections that had to take place on December 9 and 16.
On November 25, Russian border ships committed aggressive actions against Ukrainian vessels that set sail from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol. Russian special forces fired on and captured three Ukrainian ships and 24 sailors in the Kerch Strait.
On November 26, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law approving a presidential decree on the introduction of martial law in Ukraine for 30 days in ten regions of the country.
