Co-chair of the European Solidarity faction Iryna Herashchenko, who is participating in a meeting of the Working Group on preparing comprehensive legislative proposals regarding the specifics of organizing and conducting elections under a special period and/or post-war elections in Ukraine, emphasized that elections during martial law are impossible.
Source: PRYAMYI
“All experts—constitutional lawyers invited to the group—expressed a clear and unequivocal position: elections during martial law are impossible! As is a referendum. And it is impossible to push them through by any manipulations. This is about the impossibility of guaranteeing democratic standards, equal access and participation, freedom of speech, and security. This is not only about voting day, but about a process that lasts not a day and not even a month,” Herashchenko notes.
“As for a referendum, lawyers reminded that the legislation prohibits holding a referendum on issues that fall within the competence of other authorities; in particular, issues of war and peace agreements are the competence of the Verkhovna Rada and the president. In addition, the law on referendums prohibits holding elections and a referendum simultaneously,” the MP recalled.
Herashchenko also stated that after 2004, Ukrainians have a serious trauma regarding the possibility of election fraud. “We will need to work very well together so that the first post-war elections are democratic and free, so that there is equal access for all political players, and so that the issue of media freedom is taken into account. What is happening today, in particular with the marathon, already violates equal access for all players to shape public opinion; there is a distortion of public opinion at a stage still far from the elections,” Iryna Herashchenko stated.
She also noted that the issue of territorial integrity cannot be the subject of any referendum: “if we are talking about territory, these may be changes of borders or regions, but within a single sovereign Ukraine.”
Herashchenko also noted that the Central Election Commission is not a subject of legislative initiative. “Therefore, any legislation must be introduced either by the president, who must take responsibility for what concerns electoral legislation, or it is exclusively the work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and not even of a working group. Our proposal is that a special temporary commission of the Verkhovna Rada be created, which should work on changes to the legislation and take responsibility for this, taking into account all these important positions and developments that our colleagues and partners are expressing here now,” the MP said.
Herashchenko also stated that online voting cannot ensure electoral standards: “the legislation very clearly defines personal voting, and any online voting, voting in ‘Diia’, voting in any other way may lead to distrust and to the elections being recognized as falsified or as having not taken place.”
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