Polling stations sit next to rebel barricades in Ukraine's Mariupol

MARIUPOL Ukraine (Reuters) - Election officials in the southeastern Ukrainian town of Mariupol, sitting in a region where separatists have proclaimed their own "people's republic," prepared for Sunday's presidential election amid concerns that fear of violence could deter people from voting.

Armed separatist militia set up barricades of concrete, sandbags and steel pipes to protect their headquarters less than 500 metres from an election commission office in the city of 500,000 people on the Azov Sea.