Kiev rejects, Moscow backs east Ukraine referendums (Roundup)

Kiev/Moscow, May 12 (IANS) Ukrainian acting President Alexandr Turchynov Monday rejected referendums in the eastern towns of Donetsk and Luhansk in which around 90 percent of the people voted in favour of independence from the central government in Kiev even as Russia said that it respects the choice of the people.

"The propagandistic farce, which terrorists qualify as the referendum, will have no legal consequences except the criminal responsibility for its organisers," Turchynov said.

Although election organisers said the turnout for the vote was over 89 percent, Turchynov claimed that only 24 percent of eligible voters in Luhansk and some 32 percent in Donetsk region had gone to the polls, Xinhua reported.

Turchynov described the recent developments in the eastern part of the country as "Russia's plan aimed at destabilising the situation in Ukraine, disruption of the presidential election and overthrowing the Ukrainian authorities".

In Moscow, Russia said Monday it respected the choice of the people in Donetsk and Lugansk and hoped for implementation of the referendum results to be processed along civilised lines.

"We have taken note of the high voter turnout despite attempts to derail the voting and we condemn the force used, including military hardware, against civilians, which lead to fatalities," the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

Moscow called for dialogue between Kiev authorities and those two regions, saying "all mediation efforts, including by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, are welcome", Xinhua reported.

Pro-Russian activists in Ukraine's eastern towns of Donetsk and Luhansk held self-rule referendums Sunday, a move deemed illegal by the Kiev government and the West.

Though Russian President Vladimir Putin constantly called for postponement of the referendum, the activists went ahead with it and also hinted that they intended to hold a second round later to join Russia.

Donetsk and Luhansk became centres of the eastern protests in mid-April when activists waving Russian flags seized government buildings, declared separatist republics and announced plans to hold a referendum on seceding from Ukraine.

Earlier Monday, media reported that at least 89 percent of the voters in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region cast ballots in favour of independence in Sunday's referendum.

The turnout for the referendum was 74.87 percent, and some 10.1 percent voted against independence, Roman Lyagin, head of the electoral commission of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said.

"These can be considered as the final results," Lyagin said.

According to another report later in the day, some 96 percent of voters in Lugansk region supported the act of state-rule of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, .

Some 3.8 percent of voters in the referendum backed staying with Ukraine, head of Lugansk People's Republic's electoral commission, Alexandr Malyhin, told a press conference Monday.

According to Malyhin, the turnout for the referendum was 75 percent.

The referendums were held after Crimea joined Russia March 18 following an independence referendum in the southern Ukraine peninsula, which was not recognised by the West.