KIEV: Pro-Russian rebels have declared victory in Sunday’s referendum on self-rule for Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk, claiming that 90 percent of votes cast in favor of independence from the central government in Kiev.
The head of the electoral commission in Donetsk Roman Lyagin said that around 75 percent of the Donetsk region’s three million eligible voters cast ballots, and that only 10 percent of people in the region voted against the bid.
On Sunday, a referendum was held in the eastern Ukraine regions of Donetsk and Luhansk on their freedom, in which people were asked to answer “Yes” or “No” to the following question: “Do you support the act of proclamation of state sovereignty for the Donetsk People’s Republic?”
The preliminary results in Luhansk region have not yet been announced but the leader of the local “people’s front” said that only around five percent voted against the “Act of state self-rule of the Luhansk People’s Republic.”
