Here's an update on the elections in mariupol and Krasnoarmiisk:
Polls have closed in local elections in Ukraine’s eastern city of Mariupol and the nearby town of Krasnoarmiisk on November 29.
The Central Election Commission said that voter turnout in Mariupol was at 34.6 percent and in Krasnoarmiisk at 34.5 percent.
The two localities, which are on government-held territory in the turbulent Donetsk region, were supposed to participate in local elections last month.
But hundreds of polling stations there did not open for the vote because of an unspecified "mistake in the ballots," the Interior Ministry said at the time.
Much of the surrounding Donetsk region and the neighboring Luhansk region are controlled by Russian-backed separatists. The two self-declared republics have agreed that they would postpone their own elections until sometime next year.
President Petro Poroshenko’s party remains popular in the center and the west, while the pro-Russan opposition has support in the south and east.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 7,900 people since April 2014.
(TASS, AFP)
We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again tomorrow morning, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.
The main news this morning is the local elections in Mariupol and Krasnoarmiisk:
Polls have closed in local elections in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol and the nearby town of Krasnoarmiisk on November 29.
The Central Election Commission said that voter turnout in Mariupol was at 34.6 percent and in Krasnoarmiisk at 34.5 percent.
The two localities, which are on government-held territory in the turbulent Donetsk region, were supposed to participate in local elections last month.
But polling stations there did not open because of disputes over the ballots.
Much of the Donetsk region and the neighboring Luhansk region are controlled by Russia-backed separatists. The separatist leaders have agreed that they would postpone their own elections until sometime next year.
President Petro Poroshenko’s party remains popular in the center and the west, while the pro-Russan opposition has support in the south and east.
Based on reporting by TASS and AFP
Our very own Brian Whitmore:
The trial against former Party of Regions deputies Oleksandr Yefremov and Oleksandr Stoyan, and Serhiy Hordiyenko, a from Communist party deputy, began in Kyiv Pechersk Court today.
The three men are accused of rigging the vote count during parliamentarian voting for the so-called dictator laws package on January 16, 2014. Deputies passed the laws, restricting freedoms of speech and assembly, by voting with a show of hands, and the results are believed to have been falsified.
The Ukrainian General Prosecutor claims that Yanukovych himself gave an order to adopt the “dictator laws.”