Donetsk, Oct 2 – DAN. Polling stations closed at 8 p.m. for the DPR and Donbass first primaries, vote counting will start soon, said the Interim Vote Commission (IVC) press officer Oleg Balykin.
"Polling stations close at 8 p.m. as planned," he announced.
He said there was no need for voting hours extention.
The Interim Voting Commission registered 1098 self-nominated candidates, among them politicians, medics, cultural leaders, militiamen, miners, scientists and teachers known across Donbass and Ukraine.
The total of 208 polling stations opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. The vote was monitored by 1043 candidates observers and 22 international observers from Finland, Greece, Germany, Italy, South Ossetia, France, Czech Republic, Serbia and other countries.
Local elections in Donbass are one of the key points of a peace deal. They were supposed to be held back in 2015 as stipulated in the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements. To accomplish the task Ukraine assumed obligation to pass the election legislation coordinated with Donbass Republics. The law has not still been passed, and a draft bill has not been worked out. This has triggered criticism towards Kiev, even from Ukraine’s western allies.