Elections cannot be held in Ukraine under martial law, which must be renewed every 90 days
Lindsey Graham and Zelensky
Portal Responding to calls by a US senator this week to announce elections in 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday voting could take place during the war if partners shared the cost, lawmakers agreed and everyone got access to the ballot box.
Currently, elections cannot be held in Ukraine under martial law, which must be renewed every 90 days and is scheduled to expire on November 15, after the normal October date for parliamentary elections, but before the presidential elections, which would normally be held in March 2024.
On August 23, top US lawmakers visited Kiev, including Senator Lindsey Graham, who praised Kiev’s fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin but said the country must show that it is different by holding elections in wartime.
In a television interview with Natalia Moseichuk, a Channel 1+1 presenter, Zelenskyy said he had discussed the matter with Graham, including the question of funding and the need for a change in the law.
“I gave Lindsey a very simple and quick answer,” he said. “He was very happy with that. As long as our legislators are willing.”
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He said it cost 5 billion hryvnia ($135 million) to hold elections in peacetime. “I don’t know how much is needed in wartime,” he said. “So I told him if the US and Europe would provide financial support…”
He added: “I will not take gun money and donate it to elections. And that is required by law.”
Zelenskyy said he told Graham that election observers had to go into the trenches. “I told him: you and I have to send observers to the front so that we can have legitimate elections for us and for the whole world.”
Ukraine also needs help in creating additional voting access for millions of people abroad, particularly from the European Union, he said.
“There is a way out,” he said. “I’m ready for this.”
Graham, a Republican, told reporters during a news conference in a bunker with Senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren, both Democrats, that his message to Zelenskyy was that they were fighting to keep the flow of guns “so you can win a war , which we cannot afford to lose”.
He added: “But I’ll also tell him this: you have to do two things at the same time. We need elections in Ukraine next year. I want this country to have free and fair elections even when under attack.”
Zelenskyy said that those fighting the Russian invasion needed to be involved. “They are defending this democracy today and not giving them that chance because of the war it’s not fair. I was against the elections precisely because of this.”