Ukraine's political parties agree on carrying out elections only after the war
All political parties represented in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) agreed to postpone holding elections until after martial law has ended in a memorandum signed in November.
Source: Verkhovna Rada website; Oleksandr Korniienko, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in a commentary to Ukrainska Pravda
Details: The agreement was reached at a meeting in the Jean Monnet Dialogue for Peace and Democracy format, which took place on 10-12 November in Zakarpattia.
The Verkhovna Rada leadership, chairmen, and delegated representatives of parliamentary factions and groups of the 9th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada specifically state in the conclusions that were published as a result of this event that they "agreed that the upcoming free and fair national elections (parliamentary, presidential) are held after the end of the war and the end of martial law with a time sufficient to prepare for elections (at least six months after the end of martial law)."
Signatories to the document include Oleksandra Ustinova from the Holos faction, Davyd Arakhamiia from the Servant of the People faction, Yuliia Tymoshenko from the Batkivshchyna faction, Iryna Herashchenko in her capacity as co-chairman of the European Solidarity faction, and representatives from other parliamentary groups.
It states that the elections must be conducted in accordance with the current electoral code, which preserves the electoral systems used for both national and local elections and restores the standards that guarantee the competitiveness of candidates running on the same party list (such as eliminating the 2556 electoral quota threshold that was previously required in order to advance a candidate on the electoral list).
Quote: "We are convinced that the upcoming national elections will be of great importance for Ukraine's democratic prospects and that they should be held in compliance with international standards.
However, we are also aware that, as a result of the war and its aftermath, holding elections will present unique challenges that will require a broad political consensus to resolve them successfully.
Therefore, within the framework of the next Jean Monnet Dialogue, we will continue our exchange of views on the principles that can become the cornerstones of the upcoming elections in Ukraine."
Details: It should be indicated that the Dialogue's participants decided to work on creating a unique law that would govern the specifics of the first post-war elections.
Oleksandr Korniienko, the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, affirmed in a statement to Ukrainska Pravda that the memorandum contains all of the commitments made by the political parties.
"Jean Monnet's dialogues on 10-12 November were devoted to a wide range of issues, among which was the issue of elections," he said.
"I do not know about other similar meetings on elections at the moment," Korniienko answered to the question of whether parliamentarians returned to the topic of elections after that meeting.
Reference: The meeting on 10-12 November in the Jean Monnet Dialogue for Peace and Democracy format was held for the ninth time since October 2016 and for the third time during the period of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 9th convocation. This was the second personal meeting after the start of unprovoked full-scale military aggression by the Russian Federation.
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