Ukraine to review legislation for first post-war elections, says CEC head Didenko
A ceasefire and safe conditions for Ukrainian citizens are necessary prerequisites for holding any elections.
This was stated by Central Election Commission head Oleh Didenko in an interview with Reuters, Censor.NET reports.
According to him, Ukraine will face enormous challenges in organizing its first elections since Russia’s 2022 invasion, as the country’s infrastructure has been destroyed and millions of people have been displaced by the Russian attack.
Updating Ukraine’s voter register and properly preparing for the vote will take a significant amount of time, Didenko said.
Ceasefire before elections
The CEC head noted that the voter register does not reflect migration changes.
"Issues of electoral legislation in Ukraine in peacetime are very complex: they could not be resolved quickly or easily. Now these issues are even more complex, as the number of challenges has increased significantly," Didenko said.
Voting in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories
- Reuters recalls that during the 2019 presidential election, nearly 19 million people voted out of 30 million registered voters. According to data obtained before the war, at least 20% of them lived in parts of Ukraine that are now occupied by Russia.
- Russian dictator Vladimir Putin previously said that Ukrainians living in Russia should be able to take part in the elections, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the idea.
"There can be no voting in the occupied territories, but Ukraine will ensure the right to vote for people who are able to reach territory controlled by Kyiv," Didenko said.
Refugees and voting at the front
According to data from the UN refugee agency as of January, about 5.8 million Ukrainian refugees are abroad, most of them in Europe. There is currently no final estimate of the number of voters abroad, as many have not updated their registration.
"We need to locate voters and create the infrastructure for voting," Didenko stressed.
Before the war, Ukraine had 102 polling stations in embassies and consulates. According to the CEC head, this is insufficient to ensure voting opportunities for refugees.
The CEC believes that opening polling stations outside diplomatic premises is the most realistic solution, as online voting and voting by mail carry risks of external interference and attempts to discredit the process.
Ensuring the electoral rights of military personnel is another challenge, although Didenko noted that Ukraine can rely on its experience in organizing voting for the military.
- Only 9% of Ukrainians support the idea of holding elections before a ceasefire, according to a December survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. About 57% consider elections possible only after a final peace agreement is concluded and the war ends.
