AS OF 12 P.M. OVER 30 THOUSAND REGISTERED VOTERS CAST THEIR VOTES, MONITORING FROM THE USA WAS PATRICK LANCASTER IN LUGANSK REPUBLIC

No violations of democratic standards in the LPR primaries, said observer from the USA Patrick Lancaster speaking at a briefing in Lugansk Media Center.

The primaries are monitored by observers from a total of more than 15 countries. As of 12 p.m. over 30 thousand registered voters cast their votes. The Interim Vote Commission (IVC) said that a more precise tally is to be announced at the next briefing at Lugansk Media Center.

Addressing the turnout, he said that “it was a bit slow at first, but then more and more started coming. It was a very interesting process to see.”

“We went to five locations, two in the center of Lugansk, one in Vergunka, one in Aleksandrovsk and Yubileiniy. Throughout the time we had a chance to speak to the residents that were coming to vote, asking why they were voting, and they were saying simply it’s their city where they were born, they want to have a choice to elect their own leaders,” the observer told journalists.

“The process itself seemed to be very well planned, a lot of safeguards in place,” he noted, “everyone who were disabled or elderly were able to have opportunity to vote by someone who could bring the voting documents to them,” he explained.

“At the beginning of the morning I had two concerns that I had to clarify through the different polling stations,” Lancaster added.

“The first one – it wasn’t completely clear to me until I asked directors of polling stations – that was how they were guaranteeing or what was the process in place not to have a possibility of one person voting twice through the day. And everyone at the polling stations that we attended I asked the same question, to directors or commission leaders of the stations. There’s a process that they go through the list and check, they say it’s completely impossible for one person to vote twice,” Lancaster assured.

“The second question I had, had to do with how the ballot boxes were sealed, I noticed that each polling station had slightly different seals on them. As I asked the reps of primaries commission, they informed there is no issue to seals to the boxes, there are certain guidelines to what to be on, including a stamp, commission stamp, and signature of the director on polling boxes, when those guidelines are in place they are sealed correctly and were sealed in the morning before elections,” he told journalists.

“By the end of the morning, by the end of our trip, the process was clear to me, that it was very professionally run and all the commissions representatives had the same information given to them, and it was the same across the board, it is a very good process of the primaries, all my concerns were completely answered.”

A total of 80 polling stations opened today at 8 a.m. in 54 wards in Lugansk, Aleksandrovsk and Yubileiniy, its residents choosing candidates to local authorities positions, with 720 volunteers facilitating the work of polling stations commissions (PSC). The PSCs will pass turnout data to local vote commissions (LVC) every two hours, LVCs will hand it over to the IVC, and its members will inform journalists.

LPR Head Igor Plotnitskiy earlier urged people to actively participate in primaries to determine opinion leaders. He has already cast his vote, saying he is choosing peace and future.