Elections under martial law carry foreign policy risks – former deputy head of CEC 

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"The general conclusion is that it is unconstitutional to hold elections during martial law. There are also organizational difficulties. The State Register of Voters has not been updated since 2022, and only now the Central Election Commission was forced to take some measures to revive this register. But there are a huge number of problems there because of millions of Ukrainian internally displaced persons and millions of refugees," said the former deputy head of the CEC.

He further mentioned that there is also a lack of information regarding the circumstances surrounding voters in the occupied territories.

"The next point is the enormous foreign policy risks. If these elections cannot be held in accordance with all the constitutional principles of electoral law, if they are not recognized by the international community, then what? Will we have support from the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, and so on? What will happen to Euro-Atlantic integration? And finally, what will it look like when the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is criticized during the election process while he is in combat, and what kind of authority will this have for the Ukrainian military? That is a lot of questions that, unfortunately, no one will be able to answer, because martial law is unnatural for elections, and elections are unnatural for martial law," summarized Andriy Mahera.

• On October 11, Zelenskyy said that Russia's war against Ukraine was in its final, most difficult, stage. At the same time, the president noted that he would run for president only during the wartime.
• On November 3, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Sky News that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is considering holding the presidential election under martial law.