Odesa discusses what elections will be like after the war

In Odesa, experts of the Civil Network OPORA shared their findings and observations on how the elections in Ukraine will be conducted after the war.

According to Olha Kotsiuruba, Senior Legal Advisor at the Civil Network OPORA, legislative preparations for the post-war elections are in the process of being actively developed, but key political decisions still require consensus.

In addition, due to the full-scale invasion in Ukraine, 521 polling stations were destroyed, 1,391 polling stations were damaged, there is no information about 6,472 polling stations
because they are on the temporarily occupied territories, and the condition of 52 more polling stations cannot be determined. The share of polling station premises suitable for voting in the government-controlled territory of Ukraine is as follows: in Kherson region - 15%, Donetsk - 40%, Zaporizhzhia - 80%, Kharkiv - 68%, Mykolaiv - 90%.

In addition, the last presidential election in 2019 cost the budget about 2 billion hryvnias, and the new ones, according to the Central Election Commission, could cost 4-5 billion hryvnias for the first round and 6.5-7 billion for the second. Parliamentary elections will cost the state 4-5 billion hryvnias. The CEC proposes to establish a sequence of elections according to the actual term of office of the authorities: presidential elections first, followed by parliamentary elections 30 days later. Local elections are not mentioned in the CEC's draft, but with such a timeframe, they can be organized a year after the end of martial law.

The meeting was moderated by Anatoliy Boyko, regional consultant of the civil network OPORA in Odesa region, head of the Odesa regional organization of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.

"What we see today in the political sphere of our country is only one component of preparations for the post-war elections. We need to prepare for them now: the more preparatory work is done today, the better the electoral process will be organized after the war is over," he said.

The meeting was attended by deputies, journalists and experts. One of the deputies of the Odesa City Council, Oleksandr Slavskyi, told the Intent that he believes it is right to discuss the post-war elections and their subtleties.

"It is interesting that they started discussing elections, and it is also right that there is a discussion of the difficulties of holding postwar elections. We talked about "soft lustration" and the specifics of organizing elections among the military. I emphasized the need to create conditions for the military who protect us to have the opportunity to both elect and be elected," said the MP.

Representatives of the Civil Network OPORA noted that the organization does not support the simultaneous holding of presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as the combination of elections with an all-Ukrainian referendum.

Кирило Бойко