Ukraine condemns 'sham' elections in Russian-occupied regions - BBC News
In the regions of Ukraine that it controls, Russia is
staging local elections, which the West and Ukraine have blasted as a
"sham" and a "flagrant violation of international law." The
polls, which are scheduled to end on Sunday in four territories, that Russia does not even entirely control; are now taking place. All of the candidates,
including the governors that Moscow personally selected, are either Russian or
pro-Russian. Voting in front of armed Russian soldiers was required of many
participants in the early voting. The
Council of Europe has denounced the action as a "flagrant violation of
international law, which Russia continues to disregard."
There will be election monitoring by the ODIHR and the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, however there are no independent observers to
certify these elections, and the final vote count has not been made public.
Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, called the elections "illegal
and worthless," claiming that many of the candidates in the Zaporizhzhia
region were not locals and some even came from Siberia in the far east of
Russia.
Moscow claimed ownership of the four occupied
territories, where elections are being held, in September of last year after
organizing illegitimate annexation referendums on the future of the occupied
lands. The international community also denounced the referendums as a fraud,
despite indications that more than 99% of people supported the areas' transfer
to Moscow's sovereignty.
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