Referendum chief says voters are expressing 'right to self-determination,' polling station

Описание: (11 May 2014) As people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk continued to cast their votes on Sunday in a contentious and hastily organised independence referendum, the head of the central elections commission of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said that the intention of the vote was not to split with Ukraine nor to join Russia.
Speaking at a news conference in the main administration building in Donetsk, Roman Lyagin said Sunday's vote was about "wanting to be heard".
"We just want to express our right to self-determination," Lyagin said.
Referendum organisers expected a high turnout, even though the security situation remained unstable around much of the area where the vote was held.
There were reports of sporadic clashes, but the situation remained calm in most of the sprawling regions with a population of 6.5 (m) million as voting got under way.
Election officials said more than 30 percent of voters cast ballots in the first three hours of voting.
Moscow and many in Ukraine's east denounce the new government as a nationalist junta and allege that it intends to trample on the rights of eastern Ukraine's Russian-speakers.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fomenting or even directing the unrest in the east, with the goal of destabilising Ukraine or finding a pretext for invasion.
Russia has rejected the accusations.
The ballots are similar to the March referendum in Crimea that approved secession from Ukraine.
Crimea was formally annexed by Russia days later.
But organisers of Sunday's vote have said that only later will a decision be made on whether they would use their nominal sovereignty to seek full independence, absorption by Russia or to stay part of Ukraine but with expanded power for the regions.


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