Davyd Arakhamiia, leader of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, and Ruslan Stefanchuk, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), have explained to the national security advisers of Ukraine's partner countries that presidential elections and a referendum to approve a possible peace agreement can only be held on condition that a ceasefire is in place.

Source: Arakhamiia and Stefanchuk in a comment to journalists after a meeting with the national security advisers of Ukraine's partners on Saturday

Quote from Stefanchuk: "All the allies understood that issues relating to the Constitution of Ukraine, which are governed by the supreme legislative act, cannot under any circumstances be the subject of either a nationwide or any other referendum. The only question that can be put to a referendum is: do you support the agreement?"

Details: Stefanchuk stressed that elections or a referendum can only take place if international democratic and security standards are met.

He said that elections or a referendum may only be held under a ceasefire, and the format in which they are held – whether on one day or over two or three days – will depend on the security guarantees.

When a journalist pointed out that Russia has not agreed to a ceasefire for the duration of a referendum or elections, Arakhamiia replied: "If there is no draft agreement that can be put to a referendum, then there is no ceasefire. The idea is this: if there is a document that has been preliminarily confirmed by the four sides – the US, Russia, Ukraine and European countries – then that document is published online and discussed for 60 days by journalists, experts, civil society organisations, politicians and so on. Then, on a certain Day X, people will come to [vote in] the referendum… They will have two ballot papers: one for the election of the next president, and a second, which will ask whether you support the peace agreement, yes or no. Then everything will be counted. For this period, of course there must be a ceasefire."

Arakhamiia explained that it has been proposed that the referendum on the peace agreement should be held at the same time as the presidential elections to increase voter turnout.

Quote from Arakhamiia: "I explained this to the advisers. Why did the idea of combining presidential elections with a referendum arise at all? You know that a referendum has only been held once in Ukraine, in 1991 – we have no experience of conducting a nationwide referendum… According to the law, for a nationwide referendum to be recognised as legitimate, at least 50% of the electorate must participate. Before the war, there were 36 million people in the electoral register. That means 18 million people must turn out for the referendum. Today this is an unattainable figure…

Presidential elections are the biggest electoral event in the country; usually more than 10 million people come out to vote. By combining the presidential elections with the referendum, it is hoped that as many people as possible will participate in the referendum, both in Ukraine and abroad. Then we will have a representative result, and this can become part of the peace plan."

Details: Arakhamiia also noted that during discussions within the working group on elections under martial law, "no one has given a clear answer as to why hybrid voting, meaning the use of online tools for all or part of the process, is impossible".

"For example, we have 6.5 million internally displaced persons. We have an IDP register in which we have only about 1 million, because they receive payments. But where are the other 5 million now, where do they live, which polling station should they vote at? Why not create an online tool – something like an online absentee certificate – where they can register at a polling station that is convenient for them? This is an online tool for conducting elections… For some reason, whenever we talk about elections, there is always some kind of aggression towards this," he said.

Background:

• On 24 December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine could submit the 20-point peace agreement for parliamentary ratification or hold a nationwide referendum, and could also decide to hold elections at the same time as the referendum. According to Zelenskyy, holding a referendum would require at least 60 days and a full ceasefire for that period.
• On 29 December, US President Donald Trump stated that Russian leader Vladimir Putin has not agreed to a ceasefire for the duration of a possible referendum on a peace plan in Ukraine.
• On 29 December, Zelenskyy said the US is working to persuade Russia to agree to a ceasefire during a referendum.
• On 22 December, Arakhamiia said a working group was being formed in parliament to deal with the issue of presidential elections during martial law.
• Later, Arakhamiia said that the working group on elections should examine whether voting could be conducted in a hybrid format: online and offline.

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