Answering calls by a US senator this week to announce the 2024 elections, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine said on Sunday that election voting could happen amid wartime if allies shared the expense, legislators authorized, and everyone reached the polls.
Elections cannot currently be held in Kyiv under martial law, which must be expanded every 90 days and is next due to expire on Nov. 15, after the ordinary date in October for parliamentary polls but before presidential elections which would commonly be held in March 2024.
Top American lawmakers visited Ukraine on Aug. 23, Senator Lindsey Graham was one of them, who poured praise on Ukraine’s war against Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia but said the nation was required to indicate it was distinct by having elections in wartime.
In an interview, Zelenskyy said that he had concerned the matter with Graham, including the question of funding and the necessity to modify the law.
I offered Lindsey a very easy answer very quickly, he said. He was very satisfied with it, as long as our legislators are ready to do it, he added.
Zelenskyy said it cost 5 billion hryvnia ($135 million) to maintain elections in peacetime.
I don’t know how much is required during wartime, so I told him that if the US and Europe deliver financial aid, he added.
The Ukrainian President said that he will not take money from arms and provide it to elections and this is defined by the law.
I told Lindsey that election watchers would have to go to the trenches. You and I should send watchers to the frontlines so that we have fair elections for us and the entire world, Zelenskyy told Lindsey.
Zelenskyy said that Kyiv would also require assistance putting up further voting access for millions of people overseas, specifically from the European Union.
During a briefing, Lindsey told reporters that his statement to Zelenskyy would be they would battle to maintain arms flowing so he can win a battle that we can’t lose.
Next year, we need an election in Ukraine and I like to see this nation have a free and honest election even while it is under attack, he added.
