Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is ready to hold elections within the next three months if the United States and other allies of Kyiv can ensure a fair vote, Reuters reports.
Holding elections during a war is prohibited by law, but Zelensky, whose term in office ended last year, is facing increasing pressure to hold the vote from US President Donald Trump, who wants a quick end to the war.
Zelensky told reporters he was ready for the election and was asking for US help in holding it safely, possibly with the help of European allies. If that is ensured, Ukraine would be ready for a presidential election within 60 to 90 days. Zelensky’s comments follow Trump’s interview with Politico, in which the US president suggested that Ukraine was using the war as a pretext to avoid holding the election. Trump has said that “they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
Zelensky has dismissed accusations that he is clinging to power as completely inadequate.
Ukraine, which sees the original US peace plan as inadequate and tailored to the Kremlin’s demands, is hoping to get strong security guarantees from its allies to prevent another Russian invasion. Zelensky and other officials have repeatedly rejected the possibility of holding the election at a time when Moscow continues to bomb Ukrainian cities, millions of soldiers are at the front and many millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes. The voting status of Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied territories and near the front line is also unclear.
Zelensky said on the 9th of December that he would ask parliament to prepare recommendations for changes to the law that would allow elections to be held during the war. Polls show that Ukrainians are against elections in wartime, but at the same time want to see new faces in politics, as the political landscape has largely remained unchanged since the last elections in 2019.
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