When will Ukraine finally choose the president? – The world

Already in July this year, elections could be held in Ukraine – shortly after the abolition of the war, which Washington wants to achieve until 20. April.

Thus, the weekly economist was transferred at the end of March. According to the list, President Volodimir Greenski, who was elected for a five-year term in the summer of 2019 for the first time. Year, he plans to run for a second term. He allegedly recently ordered his team to organize elections after the beginning of a comprehensive ceasefire.

There is still no preparation for choices

In Ukraine, there are currently no preparation for elections, said the head of the parliamentary club of the ruling party « Sluga Naroda » David Arahamija

« All parties and parliamentary clubs in parliament were agreed that the election should be held for six months after the abolition of the war, » Arahami said.

At the end of February, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a declaration « on democracy support under the conditions of Russian aggression. »

In this declaration, they are supported by green and reject the charges of the Russian president of Vladimir Putin that the Green is no longer a legitimate head of the state. The declaration confirms that the presidential elections will be held « as soon as comprehensive, just and sustainable peace. »

The United States and Russia have repeatedly required new elections in Ukraine. American President Donald Tramp called the Green in February even « Dictator without choice ». However, in Ukraine, elections are prohibited during the war.

What security risks are there?

Many Ukrainians are used to day-to-day shelling, but still large election events, debates or meetings of candidates and voters in the current conditions were extremely risky. Therefore, Kiev requires security guarantees in all conversations.

Thus, the truce should apply not only on the front, but should be ensured that polling places do not become targets of air or terrorist attacks.

And it is not excluded that something like that can happen, warns Olga Ajvasov, director of the Network, which oversees the maintenance of elections in Ukraine.

« Given the attacks on recruiters and sabotage, Russia will be made something similar to polling stations. Therefore, the election law would be regulated in such a case during the selection or counting of votes, » says Ajvasov.

Can all voters be recorded?

On the first day of the comprehensive Russian invasion, the Central Election Commission blocked access to polling lists, to protect him and citizens’ data. At that moment, about 34.7 million voters were registered.

Only in December 2023. year, the Commission continued to work on the database partially. It is currently focused on updating the addresses of polling stations, because Ukraine during the process of « decommunization » and « derusion » changed the names of many places and streets.

Also, the Commission records war damage. By 2024. Year, only on the territory of Kiev, 7,500 polling stations were affected by combat actions.

In the polling list, citizens are registered according to the place of residence. However, since the beginning of invasion, the number of internally displaced persons increased multiple – in December 2024., according to the International Migration Organization (IOM), was more than 3.6 million.

Many of them are not registered at the new address or do so with delay, experts from the Kiev Institute of Reasonable are observed. « As a result, voter addresses are neither updated nor reliable, » the researcher study is stated.

What about Ukrainians abroad?

In addition to internally displaced, there are Ukrainian refugees abroad – according to IOM, at the end of last year, there were about six million.

In order to participate in the elections, they must register in Ukrainian consulates in the countries they have avoided. However, as they specify in the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, most do not.

Even the vote of registered refugees abroad was complicated. So far, polling stations have been mainly organized in consulates premises – which cannot receive tens of thousands of citizens in one day. Therefore, additional rooms should be rented, at least in large cities where the largest number of Ukrainians live today.

However, however, it is not clear how to act with Russia and Belarus, where, according to UN data, 1.3 million Ukrainians settled.

According to the polls of the Center Reasonable, about 47 percent of Ukrainians believe that refugees abroad should be eligible in elections in their homeland, while about 36 percent are against it.

However, many Ukrainians seem to be gradually losing interest in political life in their country.

Anton Khrushčetski from the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) told DW that he has participated in the election only a third of the 801 surveyed refugees, which KIIS surveyed in May last year in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic last year.

Voting via app?

It may seem that many logistical problems could be resolved by distance voting – by mail, as in Germany, or using electronic systems such as Ukrainian application « Kije », used by more than 21 million Ukrainians in the country and abroad.

Over, for example, a Ukrainian representative for this year’s Eurovision song was elected in February. « But then the system has fallen, which can’t be considered reliable yet, » criticizing MP Alina Zahorujko from the ruling party « servant of the people ».

« Russia cannot influence elections only to physical or hacker attacks, but also through information via media and social networks, » Olha Ajvasova emphasizes.

He agrees with her president of the Committee for Freedom of Opinion in the Ukrainian Parliament, Jaroslav Jurčišin from the Holos Party (Voice). However, Ukrainian media and the state have developed methods to combat Russian misinformation during the last three years.

Jurčišin points out that participants in peace negotiations will probably determine the date of choice. Also, Ukraine must coordinate elections with partners, because it simply lacks funds for their implementation.

« Many aspects of the future truce, and thus election, today cannot be predicted. However, there are obvious challenges, and parliament should be reformed by the election law to respond to them, » said the Prophet.

In this context, the president of the Central Election Commission Oleh Didenko told Ukrainian justice that preparations for elections after the war last longer than the current law provides.