Today the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada registered a draft law on a Ukrainian consultative poll on 25 May. The document was prepared by Ardent Yatsenyuk. The text of the document is not available on the government's website.
According to political analyst Alexei Poltorakov, despite the content of the document being unknown it can be assumed that it has to do with the referendum demanded by south-eastern Ukrainians, but there are several reasons why this initiative might fail. "The idea of holding a referendum at the same time as the elections on May 25 is good because it will be cheaper. But the problem here is that such serious issues at a constitutional level, which will probably be put to a referendum, are not decided in a hurry, especially in the context of the state of emergency that exists in the regions of Ukraine. Besides, it is very difficult to organize this referendum from the administrative point of view in the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kharkov or Odessa," the expert said.
Poltorakov said that the initiative of the government is belated. "This referendum should have been organized earlier - it would have helped to keep the Crimea and no doubt could have substantially reduced tension in society. Today, after the events in Odessa and the ongoing security operation in Donbass, this initiative can be effectively used to criticize the government for being weak and unable to agree with the regions without a referendum," the analyst said.
