The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Ukraine has asked the Verkhovna Rada committee for state development, regional policy and local self-governance and the legal policy and justice committee to clarify provisions of the country's law on local elections dealing with the possibility of calling local elections in the certain parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The CEC also asked parliamentarians to ensure the replacement of deputies of the local legislatures in these territories should their mandate be terminated ahead of time pending the Verkhovna Rada's decision to order and hold the relevant local elections in these territories, the commission's press service said.

"And if it proves to be possible to call such elections, [deputies] should urgently pass legislation to solve any problems that may occur while organizing the preparations for such local elections and during such elections themselves and ensure the replacement of deputies in the local councils," it said.

The CEC has taken such steps because it has been receiving numerous questions of whether it is possible for the relevant territorial election commissions to order and hold elections of deputies to the local legislatures and elections of the heads of the relevant towns and villages and also replace local legislature deputies in the certain parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions where local elections were not called and were not held on October 25, 2015.