Those votes will help shape the country’s postwar reconstruction, its relations with allies, and its drive to join the European Union..
Calls for elections are coming from very different directions. Western partners continue to stress the importance of elections in a democracy, while Russia argues that Ukraine’s current leadership lacks legitimacy because regular electoral timetables have passed.
But the practical barriers remain overwhelming. Forced to defend itself from Russian attacks, Ukraine cannot hold normal national elections, and the conditions needed for a free and secure vote do not yet exist, the PAP news agency said in its analysis piece.
The problem is legal, technical and physical. Organizing polling stations across a country under attack would be extraordinarily difficult. So would running a normal campaign, protecting voters from air strikes, and ensuring access to the ballot for soldiers serving on the front line and for people displaced by the war.
“I do not currently see any technical possibility of holding elections in Ukraine,” said Viktor Byshchuk, a journalist with the Pershyi Zakhidnyi television channel in Lviv.
He said the issue is not simply passing a law, but making it possible in practice to operate polling places, run a campaign, and allow soldiers and displaced people to vote.
A further obstacle is the large number of Ukrainian citizens living abroad, including both labor migrants and war refugees, who still have the right to vote. Ukraine’s diplomatic and consular network would struggle to handle overseas voting on the scale required.
The safety issue also affects the media, whose work will be essential whenever Ukraine is finally able to vote.
Democratic elections depend on voters having access to reliable information, yet journalists across Ukraine are already working under conditions of constant danger.
The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine has reported that recent Russian drone attacks hit media workers and damaged homes, offices and news operations in several cities, including Lviv.
Union head Sergiy Tomilenko said such attacks are part of a broader Russian effort to damage society’s ability to document events and preserve evidence of the war.
Wasyl Hulaj, head of the Department of International Information at Lviv Polytechnic, said most experts outside Russia agree that full-scale elections cannot be held while the country remains under continuing Russian attack.
Even so, he said, most political forces are already preparing for both presidential and parliamentary campaigns.
One of the biggest unanswered questions is whether President Volodymyr Zelensky, in office since 2019, will run again. If he does not, attention is likely to turn to possible candidates linked to the presidential camp.
Among the names being discussed are Kyrylo Budanov, head of Zelensky's office and formerly the chief of military intelligence, and Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former commander-in-chief of Ukraine's military who now serves as ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Recent polling suggests that, if a presidential election were held now, Zelensky would remain the front-runner, though with no overwhelming lead.
The same survey points to strong support for possible future political forces linked to Zaluzhnyi and Budanov, even though neither party has been formally created.
Analysts also expect the next parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s legislature, to be highly fragmented. Established parties such as Servant of the People, European Solidarity, Batkivshchyna, and UDAR may remain present, but with modest support.
That would likely mean coalition governments and a more unstable political landscape.
Veterans of the war are expected to play a major role in the next campaign, and arguments over military decisions, especially from the first phase of the 2022 invasion, could become a major line of political attack.
Some observers also believe debate may grow over whether any future peace deal with Russia should be put to a referendum.
That makes the timing and shape of the next elections more than a domestic political issue.
They are likely to influence how effectively Ukraine rebuilds after the war, how steadily it works with foreign partners, and how firmly it stays on its European course.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP