No draft laws in parliament on elections during martial law, says senior Ukrainian parliamentarian

Oleksandr Korniienko, Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), has said that there are no draft laws or legislative initiatives in parliament regarding elections during martial law.

Source: Oleksandr Korniienko on the national joint 24/7 newscast

Details: Korniienko said that any such process would first require a broader political discussion in the parliament.

Quote: "To launch such a process, we all need to sit down together, talk and understand how far we can move in parliament while drafting this legislation…

It's not like we're putting off elections for comfort. This needs to be explained once again to everyone. It's because of the war, because of Russian missiles, daily drone attacks, because the Russians are pushing in the east and in the south. It's not because we do not want democracy.

We are an EU candidate country, we must meet all the Copenhagen democracy criteria and we will work on this, but if there is a need from our side to provide a legislative framework, we will provide it.

Yet it is obvious that we cannot move forward without a security framework – the one President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has highlighted and which must be provided by our partners in the US and in Europe.

A security framework plus an organisational and legal framework is when we can start talking about something."

More details: Korniienko said that there are currently no official drafts or registered legislative initiatives of this kind in the Rada.

In his view, the Cabinet of Ministers (the Ukrainian government) should also be involved in the process and any legislation on elections during martial law should be discussed with civil society organisations.

He listed a series of challenges that would need to be tackled in preparing for such elections, including:

• Voters abroad who would not want to return to a country under fire
• Conditions for participation in elections for frontline soldiers, who number in the hundreds of thousands
• The possibility for service personnel to stand as candidates (there is a provision for leave now, but the practicalities need to be understood)
• Issues concerning internally displaced persons and the voter register, including the need to give Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) the relevant powers and resources
• Security criteria for holding or not holding elections and for opening polling stations, including protection from drones and rules for deciding where polling stations can open, especially in frontline areas.

Quote: "Right now, we cannot guarantee security on election day or for campaigning in a very large part of the country. These are our frontline cities and villages near the front line.

I do not know the exact depth. It needs to be assessed. Security agencies must assess it, but clearly, with these modern, powerful FPV drones that can hit at tens of kilometres, the question arises where to open polling stations and where not to.

Our legislation does not even define who should decide this. There are many questions here that need to be resolved and worked through. If the task is to prepare a certain legislative framework, I think we have already been moving in this direction for quite some time."

More details: Korniienko said that the CEC currently has seven working groups and many draft papers.

There are also drafts in the parliament, he added, but the Rada has not considered any of these documents in plenary sessions.

Quote: "We have repeatedly, unfortunately, faced a situation where any attempt to talk about post-war elections has turned into a political argument."

More details: Korniienko believes that if partners are now making immediate demands for elections, they must first ensure the security component is in place.

The deputy speaker also reminded viewers that Ukraine cannot amend its Constitution while martial law is in force.

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