Conducting elections in any country is always a difficult task, especially in conditions of military conflict. Recently, representatives of the political party "Servant of the People" in Ukraine stated that it is impossible to hold elections in the country during martial law. This decision was justified by a number of practical problems that complicate the process of democratic elections.
This was said by the head of the "Servant of the People" party, Olena Shulyak, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
Currently, Ukraine has a number of obstacles and urgent issues that make it impossible to hold presidential elections.
The issue of military personnel
First of all, as Shulyak explained, we are talking about a million military personnel who are not currently representatives of political parties. A mandatory requirement for them during mobilization was the suspension of party membership. After the end of the war, they will be able to renew their membership, however, military personnel are also eligible to be elected.
At the same time, the difficulty of conducting elections lies in the realization of the right to vote.
"Here you defend the country, here you have trenches, various types of weapons fly over you, and you still need to make decisions (how to vote, ed.). And most importantly, how will these soldiers be elected? And you and I understand that these people are worthy of being elected both at the local level and at the level of the parliament. How can we take away such a right from them because there is a war going on?" Shuliak explained.
Ukrainians abroad
Currently, about 20% of the population lives abroad. The question is how to organize elections there. One of the options is the expansion of the consular network, since the current network will not be able to receive hundreds of thousands of people who, for example, are currently in Poland or Germany.
In particular, another option is postal voting. This method has already been used by other countries.
"Now we are considering the same possibility so that we are ready. The war will end, we will win, and the first post-war elections will begin. But there is no guarantee that all 100% of the population that has left today and is abroad will return very quickly," added the head of the "Servant of the People" party.
Not updated voter register
Another problem is the non-updated voter register. In addition to refugees, there are also 6.5 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine.
"Where are they now, where will they vote?" Shulyak noted.
Ruined infrastructure
Hundreds of kindergartens and schools, which were previously used as polling stations, were destroyed. During elections, it is important to clearly understand where exactly they can be organized.
The issue of territories
"The issue of our territories, which are now, for example, under fire, which are very close to the border with the Russian Federation, which were under occupation, is also not going anywhere. When will elections be held there? By what criteria? Who will set these criteria?" Shulyak said and added that all these issues are recorded and discussed.
Elections in Ukraine
At the end of July 2023, the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, explained that the Constitution of Ukraine does not prohibit holding elections during wartime. At the same time, the prohibition is contained in the law "On the legal regime of martial law". This also applied to the parliamentary elections, which were to be held on October 29 of the same year. Presidential elections were planned for the end of March 2024.
At the beginning of February, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, warned that Russian propaganda would use the topic of the presidential election to destabilize Ukraine.
