Zelenskyy: We need to think about how to hold elections, as currently the law forbids it

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that Ukraine "needs to think" about how to hold presidential elections, because at the moment they are prohibited by law during wartime.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview for British TV programme Channel 4 News

Quote: "I haven’t postponed [the elections – ed.], it happens automatically. I’m just not able to hold them now, primarily because of the law which forbids me from doing it. It doesn’t just forbid me from holding elections, but all institutions in general.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine [the Ukrainian Parliament – ed.] has to vote and give a mandate for the elections. They [the MPs – ed.] have to raise this question and vote. They can’t do that due to the prohibition – they can’t break the law. The situation is that elections are forbidden during wartime.

And even if it were possible to do it, what would we do about the temporarily occupied territories, and how could we make these elections legitimate so that they would be recognised by the world if over 6 million Ukrainian citizens are abroad and they would need the infrastructure to vote, and we unfortunately don’t have a format for online voting?

If you ask me, I believe we do need to think about how to do it. If I could do it tomorrow, I would."

Details: Asked whether "the circumstances are unsuitable" now, Zelenskyy replied: "The circumstances and the law. We must change the circumstances and change the law."

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