Mahera: Special law and funds needed to hold elections in troubled districts

Deputy Head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Andriy Mahera said this in an interview with Channel 5, Ukrinform reported.

"In this case it will be necessary to adopt a separate special law... If this law is adopted in the first half of September, given its speedy consideration at second reading, then it's quite possible that such elections will be held before the EU-Ukraine summit in Vilnius [in November]," Mahera said.

He said that it was also necessary to take into account two factors, in particular, the ability of parliamentary political factions to agree on such a scenario and the content of the law and the absence of budget funds on any parliamentary elections.

"If these factors are resolved, I see no problems with the holding of these elections," Mahera said.

While commenting on possible dates for these elections, which were announced by the Party of Regions -December 22 or 29, he suggested that this was primarily related to the budget factor. "Sometimes there is a situation when at the end of the year some funds remain unallocated and they can be used in case of urgency for some social needs, particularly for holding these elections," he said.

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