The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, is considering calling elections at the end of his term in 2024 despite the war in which the country is immersed, as declared today by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba, during his speech at a conference held in Abu Dhabi.
“The president of Ukraine is considering it and weighing the advantages and disadvantages,” Kuleba said of this possibility.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy also referred to the difficulties that going to the polls would entail in the middle of the war.
President Zelensky ends his term on March 31, 2024. Under normal conditions he would be obliged to call elections, but the martial law that prevails in the country prohibits the holding of elections while it is in force.
In order to go to the polls, Ukraine would have to modify that law.
President Zelensky has shown himself open on several occasions to making this change and going to the polls, but he has warned, in line with the statements of several figures in the military and security establishment, of the challenges of guaranteeing the right to vote of the soldiers deployed on the front and the refugees.
The risk of bombing and the Russian occupation of a significant part of the country in which Ukrainian residents would not be able to vote are other problems that holding elections would raise.
On the other hand, supporters of going to the polls even if the war has not ended claim that Zelensky would lose part of his democratic legitimacy if he delayed the elections.