WASHINGTON – The issue of the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine is emerging as a potential sticking point in the agreement between Russia and Ukraine, which the United States is negotiating.
However, Ukrainian officials and election experts say that holding the election so soon would endanger people's lives and Ukraine's sovereignty.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was elected in April 2019, and the next presidential election was scheduled to be held in March or April 2024. However, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, a state of emergency has been in effect, and Ukrainian laws prohibit holding elections as long as the state of emergency continues.
United States President Donald Trump criticized Mr. Zelensky for not holding the presidential election.
On February 19, in a post on his Truth Social platform, President Trump said of Mr. Zelensky: "He refuses to hold elections, enjoys low popularity in Ukrainian polls, and the only thing he has been successful at is manipulating Biden. A dictator without elections, Zelensky better act quickly or there will be no country left."
Some members of the US Congress and conservative commentators echo President Trump's demand that Ukraine hold elections to prove its democratic values.
"Zelensky should hold elections. They are in a state of emergency. It's not a good sign if he claims to be defending democracy. They should enforce it," Republican Senator Josh Hawley told VOA.
Republican lawmaker Victoria Spartz told VOA that Ukraine should hold "transparent elections" and that failing to do so is allowing Russia to say, "an illegitimate president is signing these contracts and agreements."
Russia has questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian president and government since 2014, many years before Mr. Zelensky was elected president.
During a televised event, where Russian President Vladimir Putin answered questions, he suggested that he could not negotiate with Mr. Zelensky until his legitimacy was confirmed through elections.
"If they go to the elections, gain legitimacy there, we will talk to anyone, including Zelensky," he said.
During a press conference on February 23, Mr Zelensky said he would resign as president if such a move would mean “peace for Ukraine”, but he rejected calls for holding elections.
“How can we hold elections in which half of the country’s population cannot vote?” he said. “How can we vote when today, Ukraine was attacked with 267 drones?”
His political rivals, former President Petro Poroshenko, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, have also rejected calls for elections. According to a poll conducted in February, 63 percent of Ukrainians oppose them.
Ukrainian election experts say there are many challenges to holding free and fair elections under war conditions.
Holding them would violate international principles of electoral law, according to former deputy director of Ukraine's Central Election Commission, Yevhenii Radchenko.
"Elections must be universal, equal and free. During active fighting, it is unrealistic to guarantee the safety of all participants, and due to massive Russian attacks, a large part of the electoral infrastructure has been destroyed," she said.
Ms. Radchenko, who joined the Ukrainian armed forces, sent these responses to VOA from the front lines in Donetsk.
On February 27, OPORA, one of the leading Ukrainian civil society organizations engaged in the issue of elections, published a statement signed by several Ukrainian non-governmental organizations, entitled “Declaration of Ukrainian non-governmental organizations on the impossibility of holding democratic elections without a stable peace.”
'Armed forces or elections'
After Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian parliament, as required by the country's Constitution, passed a law on a state of emergency, which prohibits holding elections.
OPORA organization spokesperson Olga Aivazovska said that the purpose of the state of emergency was to protect the state and mobilize society for defense.
"We have to choose either the armed forces or elections," she told Voice of America.
Ms. Aivazovska pointed out that Ukraine held elections during the period between 2014 and 2022, when the conflict with Russia was ongoing in eastern Ukraine, but before Russia carried out airstrikes on Ukrainian territory.
“Even if there is a ceasefire, there is no guarantee that Russia will not violate it as it has done many times during the period between 2014 and 2022,” she said. “It could carry out extensive bombing of Ukrainian territory on election day. It could organize terrorist attacks on polling stations, kill voters, election workers and observers, or at the very least, disrupt the process.”
According to her, it would be easier to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the elections if only 5 or 10 percent of the population voted.
"If Ukraine starts the electoral process without a guarantee that it can conclude it, it means that we are simply giving this tool to Russia to misuse and manipulate," she says.
Ms Radchenko says around 14 million residents – out of a total of 41 million – would not be able to vote, given that the war displaced millions of Ukrainians and around a million Ukrainian men and women are now serving in the armed forces.
According to Ms. Aivazovska, it remains unclear how residents of the territories occupied by Russia, "where people are being tortured, kidnapped and other crimes are being committed against them," will be able to vote freely, even after the state of emergency is lifted.
Most of the 7 million Ukrainians who fled the country because of the war will also not be able to vote, regardless of whether the countries where they are now taking refuge invest a lot of funds in organizing this process.
“In 2004, a record number of Ukrainians living abroad voted at polling stations at Ukrainian embassies and consulates – about 103,000 Ukrainian citizens in different countries of the world. There are simply no resources to organize elections for 7 million people,” said Ms. Aivazovska.
Let Ukraine decide
Many of the lawmakers in the US Congress interviewed by Voice of America say that Ukraine should be free to decide for itself when to hold elections.
Republican lawmaker Brian Fitzpatrick said the United States and other democracies should urge Ukraine to hold elections when it can ensure a safe and fair process, but not when "Ukrainians are still under attack by a malevolent communist dictator."
Democratic lawmaker Eugene Vindman, who was born in Kiev in 1975, told VOA that "when 20 percent of the territory is occupied, when millions of Ukrainians are outside the country, it's hard to imagine holding democratic elections that represent the majority of voters."
Lawmaker Vindman expressed confidence that Ukrainian society will hold elections once it secures lasting peace.
Republican Senator Kevin Cramer said that the example of elections held in the US during World War II does not apply to this situation because the United States did not have to fight on its territory. According to lawmaker Vindman, European countries also suspended elections during the war.
Democratic lawmaker Seth Magaziner suggested that a strong statement from President Trump supporting Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression would make it easier for Ukrainians to "work toward a timeframe for elections."
Republican lawmaker Don Bacon also stressed that Russia is not in a position to demand that elections be held in Ukraine.
"They haven't had free elections in the last 25 years. Putin has killed all his rivals. They've thrown them off buildings. They've poisoned them. They've killed them in the gulag," he told VOA.
The spokeswoman for the Office for Democratic Institutions at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Katya Andrusz, told Voice of America that at the request of Ukrainian authorities, her office has begun work to ensure that when the preconditions are in place, Ukraine holds elections "in accordance with international standards and the commitment that Ukraine has made as an OSCE member state to hold democratic elections."
"OHDIR has worked with Ukraine in many areas and we respect the country's democratic strength despite ongoing challenges," she said./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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